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TH E 



FULNESS OF BLESSING; 



OR, 



THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, 



AS ILLUSTRATED FROM 



THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 



BY 



SARAH F. SMILEY 



"l REJOICK AT THV WORD, AS ONE THAT FINDETH GREAT SPOIL." — PSALM CXIX. 



iiit.Ly i] 



NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

900 BROADWAY, COR. 20th STREET. 

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CoPVRIGHT, 1876, BY 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 



ROBERT RUTTER, EDWARD 0. JENKINS, 

Q|NDERi PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 

g. HERMAN STE6T. H. ». M NORTH WILLIAM ST., N. ». 



TO MY FRIENDS. 

To all those, beloved in Christ Jesus, to whom in 
widely scattered places, it has been the joy of my life 
to unfold the treasures of the Word, and to all others 
who make it their delight and meditation, I present 
this volume. 

I have written it as ever looking out upon a multi- 
tude who earnestly desire a deeper knowledge of their 
Lord, and as one pressed in spirit to fulfil a sacred 
trust. 

It is my earnest prayer that each of you in whose 
hands I place it, may find the Lord opening your 
hearts to attend to His own truth, and coming in 
Himself in the fulness of His blessing. 

Most especially do I pray that it may bring some 

message to the many ministers of Christ, to whose 

kindness I have owed so largely the opportunities 

of also serving Him. If any who are called to teach 

others, shall find here such truth as may enlarge and 

strengthen their own hearts first, it will, indeed, be a 

multiplying of my joy. While I can not venture to 

hope that my secluded study will secure on many 

points the same exactness as the training of the 

schools, yet I feel well assured that to you, as to 

fiii) 



IV 



TO MY FRIENDS. 



myself, this will seem a light thing compared to any 
portion of that Anointing, which teacheth all things 
and is truth and is no lie. 

And now I would solemnly dedicate these pages to 
Him, who even in their writing has so richly blessed 
my own soul ; entreating Him to defend them from 
any misapprehension that might mar their service, or 
harm His flock, and to take them into His own hands 
and bless them, as once He did the loaves and fishes, 
to the feeding of all such as hunger and thirst after 
righteousness. 

Saratoga Springs, October, 1S76. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction .... 

I. — The Land of Promise 
II. — The Failure of Unbelief 
III. — Change of Leadership 
IV. — The Boundary Line . 
V. — The Triple Preparation . 
VI. — The Ark of the Covenant 
VII. — Memorial Stones 
VIII. — The Reproach of Egypt . 
IX. — The Passover in Canaan . 
X. — The New Corn and Fruit of 
XI. — Seeing the Captain . 
XII.— The Good Fight of Faith 
XIII. — Failure and Mistake 
XIV. — Choice Possessions 
XV. — The Last Charge of Joshua 

Passages of Scripture, quoted with varia- 
tions FROxM our present version 
Index 



the 



Land 



20 

44 
66 
81 

ICO 

126 

143 
i 5 3 

'75 

200 

220 

2\Q 
266 
286 
313 

329 



»3i 



THE 

Fulness of Blessing. 



INTRODUCTION. 

" THE holy GHOST THIS SIGNIFYING," — {Hebrews ix. 8.) 

MUSICIANS tell us that the quality of the voice 
in song depends upon its overtones ; that is, the 
accordant notes which are heard sounding faintly 
above the fundamental tones. It is the same pecul- 
iarity which gives the silvery ring to some voices in 
speech. And so as we listen to the voices of the 
Law and of the Prophets, we find a wondrous, and, 
to some, a mysterious charm. But the ear that has 
been trained by the same master-skill that taught 
their lips, solves the secret of the spell, and catches 
with delight through the deep thunder utterances the 
glad over-tones of the coming Gospel. They could 
not rise so high as to utter its loftiest truth ; but 
they reached on to this, and this, the Spirit, speak- 
ing through them, signified. Alas ! that for so many 
it was signified in vain— for the dull of mind became 
sluggish of heart to believe all that the prophets 
have spoken. 

It is a somewhat astonishing folly that stands 
charged to the saints, that so many who have essayed 



2 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

to expound the Word of God, have, in the very out- 
set, and, as a matter of principle, flung away that key 
which can alone unlock its most intricate wards. The 
sequel has been too often, that they fell into the same 
ditch of ignorance with the confessedly blind whom 
they professed to lead. Until a period comparatively 
recent, and not yet fully inaugurated, the majority 
of English and American expositors -have ignored 
the typical teaching of the Old Testament, some of 
them even denouncing all such interpretations not 
fully sanctioned by the later Scriptures.* With all 
that erudition to which we owe so much, they yet 
have missed a treasure which God, even in hiding, 



* For a list of authors adopting - this view, see Fairbairn on the 
Typology of Scripture, pp. 37, 39. He quotes the following from 
Moses Stuart : " Just so much of the Old Testament is to be 
accounted typical as the New Testament affirms to be so, and no 
more" He adds this comment upon such a system : " It drops 
a golden principle for the sake of avoiding a few lawless aberra- 
tions And in proportion as a more profound and spiritual 

acquaintance with the Divine Word is cultivated, will the feeling 
of dissatisfaction grow in respect to a style of interpretation that 
so miserably dwarfs and cripples the relation that the prepara- 
tory bears to the ultimate in God's revelations." 

Dean Alford deals more summarily with the system : " Of 
course no one who reads, marks, learns, and inwardly digests the 
Scriptures, can subscribe to the shallow and ignorant dictum of 
Macknight. ' This is to be laid down as a fixed rule, that no 
ancient history is to be considered allegorical but that which 
inspired persons have interpreted allegorically.' " — The Greek 
Testament, by Henry Alford, D.D. Fourth Ed. Vol. III., 
p. 4«. 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

brought often to the surface, that the eager and 
earnest might track its deeper veins. 

Along with some happy exceptions to this state- 
ment, there have been others who erred by an 
opposite extreme. Among the latter may be num- 
bered not a few of the early Christian writers. These 
first explorers of the rich mines brought up such a 
mixture of metals as was beyond their skill to assay, 
and so mingled fact and fancy as to cast discredit 
upon their work. And yet, along with every great 
revival of Evangelical Truth, these mines have been 
re-opened, if only for random research. 

Meanwhile, all along these centuries, a mass of sim- 
ple Christian believers, escaping the dicta of the wise 
and prudent, have been steadily and instinctively 
applying this typical teaching to their own needs. 
At least the babes, who were never sent to school, 
have kept this knowledge which their Father gave 
them;* and as the most childlike simplicity is always 



* " The real secret of the neglect of the types, I can not but 
think, may, in part, be traced to this — that they require more 
spiritual intelligence than many Christians can bring to them. 
To apprehend them, requires a certain measure of spiritual 
capacity and habitual exercise in the things of God, which all do 
not possess for want of abiding fellowship with Jesus. The mere 
superficial glance upon the Word in these parts, brings no cor- 
responding idea to the mind of the reader. The types are, in- 
deed, pictures, but to understand the pictures it is necessary we 
should know something of the reality. The most perfect repre- 
sentation of a steam-engine to a South Sea savage, would be 
wholly and hopelessly unintelligible to him simply because the 



4 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

close of kin to the most profound wisdom, we see at 
last the highest scholarship, and especially German 
scholarship, on the side of these little one*. The 
prominence given of late both to unfulfilled proph- 
ecy and unexplained type, is only the due honor- 
ing of the claim that " all Scripture is given by in- 
spiration of God, and is profitable." That God has 
chosen to teach us in such a way — by patterns, types, 
and symbols, among all His divers manners, is enough 
of itself to justify its wisdom. It is the skill of the 
master, who has a further aim than to make all things 
as easy as possible to the learner. He has given 
us Holy Scripture, not to read merely, but to 
search. 

Such teaching is analogous to another which began 
with Creation, when God let His invisible things be 
clearly seen and understood by the things which He 
made, giving to the world, even in the Primer of 
Nature, such lessons as left it without excuse if it 
knew Him not. And having filled one volume with 
the living letters by which men should spell out the 
words of Truth, it was but fitting that human life, as 
wrought out in History, should be another for still 
higher study : that laws and customs, arts and events, 

reality, the outline of which was presented to him, was some- 
thing hitherto unknown. But let the same drawing be shown to 
those who have seen the reality, such will have no difficulty in 
explaining the representation. And the greater the acquaintance 
with the reality, the greater will be the ability to explain the pic- 
ture."— The Law of the Offerings, by Andrew Jukes, p. 6. 



IN TROD UC TION. 5 

as arranged by God, should all be a revelation of 
Himself. And such the Scriptures assert them to 
be* 

" Which things are an allegory,"*)- is the simple 
statement of St. Paul respecting the two sons of 
Abraham, the one by a bond-woman, the other by a 



* Rev. Hugh Macmillan (" The Garden and the City ") speaks 
of " that subtle organization of Scripture, which must strike every 
exegete, and which, like the organization of nature, presents from 
every new point of view new harmonies of form and detail." Again, 
speaking of the resemblances of Scripture and the manifold com- 
binations resulting : " The whole typology of Scripture is founded 
upon this law of mutual resemblance. The study of Scripture 
derives from it much of its charm and interest, for each special 
aspect of Divine truth can be periectly combined with every other. 
Nay, more, the whole scheme of nature, the whole history of life 

is based upon the law in question All things, according to 

the poet, by a law divine, mingle in one another's being. And 
if the discovery of profound resemblances of form and analogies 
of structure, where others see only wide divergencies and palpa- 
ble contrasts, be to the naturalist one of the purest of his pleas- 
ures, inasmuch as it brings him into contact with the Great Mind 
of the universe in whose image he was made ; so over the soul 
of the Bible student there creeps a feeling of increasing joy and 
wonder at the fulness and subtlety of the connection by which 
each part of the Scriptures is bound to all the others — for this is 
the highest proof of its inspiration and of its fitness for gathering 
together all things in heaven and earth into One, even in Him 
who is the Truth and the Life, the Beginning and the End." — 
See Introduction, p. xxxix.-xlvi. 

t Gal. iv. 24. "The lesson to be drawn from this whole pas- 
sage, as regards the Christian use of the Old Testament, is of an 
importance which can scarcely be overrated."— Co?iybeare and 
How son s Life and Epistles of St. Paul. 



6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

free-woman — although in the history itself not a hint 
of the kind is given. Again, concerning a variety of 
events, he twice asserts that " these things happened 
unto them for types." * He does not even treat 
them as events first occurring, and then found after- 
ward to convey a useful lesson, but he boldly traces 
an " intent " of God in permitting them so to hap- 
pen, and then preserving their record for the lesson's 
sake.f Yet this is the very point upon which we find 
such peculiar sensitiveness. Use, it is said, if it so 
please you, these historical incidents, and apply them 
as illustrations of truth. But do not call them types. 
Think your own profitable thoughts, but do not sug- 
gest that God had any such thoughts. Are we, then, 



* Cf. i Cor. x. 6 ; I Cor. x. u. 

t " Every moment it becomes a more serious question whether 
this language [of Hebrew ideas and imagery] is to be allowed 
for as inaccurate in itself, but under the circumstances of the 
case inevitable, or whether it is to be insisted on as the method 
prepared in the purpose of God for the most adequate expres- 
sio?i of spiritual truth. The question was, indeed, decided by 
the two facts, that the Old Covenant itself was a Divine ordi- 
nance, and that its historical relations with the New Covenant 
were a Divine provision. Still, it was of high importance to the 
clearness and fixedness of the doctrine, that this connection be- 
tween the two covenants should be deliberately shown to con- 
sist not in rhetorical illustration, but in a divinely-intended 
system of analogies. This is the permanent office of the Epistle to 

the Hebrews It expressly recognizes the fact that " the word 

of the beginning of Christ " had been enlarged by intervening 
teachinpjnto a " perfection," which many of those who are here 
addressed' had sinfully and shamefully failed to receive ; the 



INTRODUCTION. y 

really more quick -sighted and far-sighted than the 
Spirit, who " searcheth ail things, yea, the deep things 
of God ? " Whatever of truth we see in any of these 
words of Inspiration we may be sure that He placed 
there, in order that we might see it. 

Again, when it is said that " these things were 
types," they seem selected as examples and not as 
exceptions. Indeed, in the constant use of the Old 
Testament by our Lord and His Apostles, regarding 
its spirit rather than its letter — what it implies more 
than what it asserts, determining the nature of events 
more by their seed than by leaf or flower — we find 
the law of their true interpretation to be not literal- 
ness, but liberty.* And taking this ground them- 
selves as highest authorities, they do not forbid us to 



teachers sent from God having wrought out for them full ex- 
positions of truth, to which their old prepossessions had closed 
their hearts. And it exhibits the further fact that this perfecting 
of the truth by the fullest definite interpretation of the principles 
of the Gospel, had been accomplished by means of the true 
reading of the Old Testament in the light of the knowledge of 
Christ." — Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament — Bamp- 
ton Lectures, by Thomas Dehany Bernard, p. 170. 



*" The existence of an abiding spiritual sense underlying the 
literal text of the Old Testament, is sufficiently attested by the 
quotations in the New. Unless it be recognized, many of the 
interpretations of the Evangelists and Apostles must appear forced 
and arbitrary ; but if we assume that it exists, their usage appears 
to furnish an adequate clew to the investigation of its most in- 
tricate mazes." — IVestcott's Introduction to the Study of the 
Gospels, p. 63. 



S THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

follow ; on the contrary, it seems everywhere sug- 
gested that we should trace out these clews. " Have 
ye not read ? " was the usual query of Jesus in draw- 
ing profound inferences from the simplest statements. 
His words imply, " Have ye not read it thus? Ye 
also should have seen its meaning as I do. How is 
it that ye do not understand ?" 

The Types of the Bible lie like so many island 
groups in the wide sea of Truth. The mainland of 
each, with many another isle, has been put upon our 
chart by the pen of inspiration. But all the little 
islets that lie clustering around are for us to explore. 
Nor have we to launch out into a far-off ocean. Our 
simple task is but to reach them from the shores dis- 
covered for us. The remotest of them shall hardly 
take us out of sight of land. Nor are we sent out 
adrift upon such new discoveries. As true as the 
needle to the pole-star, though that star be hidden, 
so does the Spirit ever point to Christ, even when 
we see Him not. And greater than that gift of the 
magnet to the voyager, was the promise to the souls 
of all that seek after God, " He will guide you into 
the whole truth."* All Scripture presupposes the 
light by which alone it can be truly read. Surely, it 



* In this, as in all other quotations from Holy Scripture in 
this volume, wherever our present version at all obscures the 
meaning', free use has been made of others, as well as of the 
original. Except in a few instances, it has not seemed needful to 
credit the special authority or to indicate the change. 



INTRODUCTION. g 

was not for a brief moment only that Jesus opened the 
understanding to " understand the Scriptures." There 
would seem to be a misapprehension of the very 
genius of Christianity among those who profess such 
alarm, lest venturing beyond that interpretation of 
Scripture given in itself, we should go utterly astray. 
There are and must needs be perils in all liberty. 
But they who, from unhallowed fear, forego the lib- 
erty, only fall into worse perils. 

God, who gave us His Holy Spirit, has provided 
still further against danger in His promised gift of " a 
sound mind." Again, we have a safeguard in that 
important authority established in the Scriptures — 
the consenting judgment of the Church. Making all 
due allowance for the Church in her aphelion, and 
the dim sight of many in her brightest hours, yet 
that which fails finally to commend itself to the chil- 
dren of God whose lives are richest in experience, 
must be delusive.* 



* We are forced to recognize the extent to which the judg- 
ment of the Church is responsible, from what we know of the 
collection of the Canon. In an extremely suggestive volume by 
the late Frederick Myers, his thoughts upon the latter subject 
will also apply to the one before us. I copy from the edition 
printed for private circulation only, though the work has since 
been published : " No event has exercised greater influence on 
the character of the Church of Christ than the existence of 
the Christian Scriptures, and yet no event was less apparently 
miraculous as contra-distinguished from providential. It was, it 
must be repeated, a result of the exercise of that enlightened 
and sanctified spiritual judgment which is the special continuous 
I* 



10 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

But, it is objected, such license would flood us with 
a vast variety of interpretations, in itself a plain 
proof of error. This shallow argument is met by 
the Scriptures themselves. In the free use of this 
great store of types, the same figure does service in 
more than one direction ; as, for instance, the Tem- 
ple finds one fulfilment in Christ, another in the 
Church, and yet is fearlessly applied to the very body 
of an individual believer.* In fact, it appears to be 
a prominent feature of this whole plan of typical 
teaching, not to give us framed pictures, but a series 
of dissolving views. 

Especially does St. Paul, in his use of the types and 
symbols of the Old Testament, take delight in turn- 
ing them round and round, like so many bright frag- 
ments in a kaleidoscope. He breaks up suddenly a 
perfectly harmonious arrangement to give us a new 
combination, and so on with variations that seem 
simply inexhaustible. How can we but draw the in- 



endowment of all ages of the Church ; which, if duly honored* 
would be found eqical to great tasks always, and which, if unduly 
dishonored, will be found to leave us in difficulties which will be 
also dangers. This case of the Christian Canon is a case in 
point. For, if none but a literal line and measure of Canonicity 
will be accepted, in this case there is none forthcoming ; if Chris- 
tian tact and discerning of spirit be despised, there is nothing 
which remains in their stead." — Catholic Thoughts on the Bible 
and Theology, 1 841-1848, p. 52. 



* Dr. Farrar, in his Life of Christ, speaks of this '' many-sided 
symbolism " of some of the acts of Jesus. See Vol. II., p. 216. 



IN TROD UC TIOJST. ! x 

ference that so our interpretation gives us a harmo- 
nious picture in full accord with Truth as otherwise 
revealed, we have in it a right lesson, though very 
possibly not the richest. 

No one eye can ever, by itself, see all that God has 
thus taught us. No more can any one sect, nation, ■ 
or age. There is needed for this the grand universal- 
ity of the One Church, and the unity of the One Spirit. 
Only, with all the saints, shall we be able to compre- 
hend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height. 
In the great Body of the Church it is with our vision 
as with the eyes of so many insects. The organ is 
composite, and the many thousands of little eyes are 
grouped upon a convex surface ; and while the range 
of each is thus more limited than is the human eye, 
the field of vision, as a whole, is greatly widened. 
Nor is there really any lack to each, since equally 
with ours the vision is a unit. It is easy to accept 
the limitations of our own individual insight of Truth, 
as we find our gain in the widest sympathy with oth- 
ers. Each of us set to gather into a perfect focus 
some one aspect of Truth, we are bound to impart 
this, while we receive in return all the other aspects. 
To have the vision complete — to sweep over the 
whole range of revelation, we need the eyes of all 
the ages, of all nationalities, of all true creeds, of all 
temperaments — the eyes of youth and of age, the 
eyes of the unlettered and the learned. There is 
good ground to hope that in the Christianizing of 



12 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Oriental nations, one of our greatest gains will result 
from their clearer insight into symbolic teaching. 

There is a still larger class of objectors who are 
ready to admit the value of typical teaching in a 
general way, but who feel the strongest repugnance 
to its interpretation in detail. For instance, they 
regard the Jewish sacrifices on the whole, as pointing 
to Christ. But the attempt to find significance in 
the minute arrangements of that ritual, they regard 
as simply contemptible. Does it ever enter into 
their thoughts that they are in danger of despising, 
not man, but God? If it be puerile to seek a 
meaning in them, why were they written by Inspira- 
tion, and why was so large a space assigned them? 
Yet it does not seem to us unworthy of the scientist 
to sit patiently before the tiniest thing in nature, and 
with his microscope, examine the most exquisite and 
skilful touches of the finger of God. He is perfectly 
sure that everything has a meaning, and he toils on 
to its discovery.* And is, then, God's Word so infe- 



* As an instance of this, see a strong statement of Darwin as 
quoted by the Duke of Argyle in his " Reign of Law." It is 
taken from a work entitled " The various contrivances by which 
British and foreign Orchids are fertilized by Insects." ByChas. 
Darwin, F.R.S. London. 1862. "The strange position of the 
Labellum perched on the summit of the column, ought to have 
shown me that here was the place for experiment. I ought to 
have scorned the notion that the Labellum was thus placed for 
no good purpose. I neglected this plain guide, and, for a long 
time, completely failed to understand th^ llowcr,'' p. 262. 



IN TROD UC TION. 



13 



rior to His other works, that, like man's work, it 
can not bear this close inspection ? Such, surely, is 
not the relative position which is claimed for it in 
the Word itself. Nor need we make an abatement 
from this claim from the fact that it is not, like nature, 
purely the work of God, but in part the work of man ; 
since at least to the full extent of human imperfec- 
tion, both in its origin and transmission, are human 
research and enlightened Christian judgment allowed 
to enter now. 

But, again, the general objection to such interprcta T 
tion falls with double force upon the histories of the 
Old Testament. Yet these, as we have already seen, 
are so interpreted in the New Testament. And one 
may well ask what such readers find in these portions 
that is spiritually "profitable." Nor can we be sur- 
prised at their frequent though half-reluctant admis- 
sion of dullness, and a corresponding slight put upon 
this part of the Bible. Nor does the evil end here. 
As histories only, many of these events seem so un- 
important, so repugnant even to our tastes, that it is 
no rare thing to find the germs of doubt and scepti- 
cism springing freely up in such waste and untilled 
soil. 

No better instance of this can be selected than the 
Book of Joshua, which will be used as the historical 
basis for the teaching attempted in this volume. It 
is almost purely historical ; and, to some, simply a 
book of bloody battles and a geographical description 



H 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



of the divisions of the land of Canaan, with here and 
there a few lessons of faith, and courage, and kindred 
virtues. And if this, indeed, be all, then it may as 
well be openly said, as so often secretly thought, 
ministering far less to our spiritual needs than many 
an uninspired volume of Christian devotion. There 
is no refuge from the scepticism that assails the Scrip- 
tures save in their more spiritual study. 

But approaching this same Book of Joshua with 
faith in that clear statement, " Now these things hap- 
pened unto them for types," and reading it as a his- 
tory indeed, but, at the same time, so anticipating 
the history of our own hearts as to be an allegory — 
we see now before us a Picture, the grandest in its 
proportions — the most life-like in its groupings — the 
most striking in its wealth of coloring — and the most 
skilful in its quiet touches, of any that God has given 
us in this Royal Art Gallery of Truth. There is sig- 
nificance even in the very place where the Picture is 
hung. We have gone through the Pentateuch — we 
are well out of this shadowy vestibule of the Law, 
and at once the advancing eye is met by this grand 
representation of the Gospel. In this Book we find 
that the failure is over, and the victory begins. An- 
ticipation becomes realization. 

Moreover, it is that Book in our Bible which, more 
than any other, presents and powerfully illustrates 
that range of truth which, as by a subtle consent, is 
attracting the eyes of all Christendom ; which has 



IN TROD UCTION. 



15 



taken to itself many names — as many as its mountain 
peaks — but which, as a whole, is covered by one 
matchless expression of St. Paul, " The fulness of the 
blessing of [the Gospel of] Christ." * 

It is, indeed, in the awakening of the Church to 
the clearer recognition of this blessing, that the key 
is recovered to the right interpretation of the Book 
of Joshua. To those who have seen Heaven, but no 
intervening Hcavenlies — a rest that remaineth, but no 
rest which the believer now enters — it was perfectly 
natural that Canaan should signify Heaven, and Jor- 
dan be simply the river of death. If this were true, 
there would be little else to be said. There could be 
no consistent typical meaning in the warfare which 
followed. Besides, such an application could make 
nothing of the command to enter the land, the failure 
to do so, and the consequent anger of God. In fact, 
it passes by entirely the very points which are so 
clearly interpreted for us in the New Testament. 

One of the ablest of modern writers upon this sub- 
ject, f after a masterly review of the Exodus, upon 
reaching the wilderness wanderings, thus disposes of 
them : " The inevitable falling off of the common 
hours and experiences, from the level of the mo- 
ments when our life gets up into the world which 
was made to be its home, seems to me to be the 



* The Gospel is omitted in the best MSS. 

t James Baldwin Brown, " The Soul's Exodus and Pilgrimage.' 



l6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

great teaching of this passage of Israel's history." 
Happily a higher authority has given us a different 
teaching. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read, 
" So we see that they could not enter in " (not because 
it was inevitable, but) " because of their unbelief" To 
carry on such an interpretation into the Book of 
Joshua, were to lose, almost entirely, the warnings, 
the encouragements, and the manifold lessons which 
fill its pages. Of course, too little is left to make 
it an attractive field ; so that, in fact, it is repre- 
sented by little more than a few fragmentary volumes 
in English Exegesis.* 

* In one of these few works, it is only upon the last page of its 
Appendix that we find how far the author has seen beyond the 
limits to which he restricted his comments. 

" Nor can we ignore the lessons which come to us through a 
symbolism which we are taught by the Apostle Paul and the 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. We see, not as a poetic 
imagination, but as a heavenly instruction, the entrance into Ca- 
naan symbolizing the believer's entrance into rest, not the rest 
of heaven, but the rest which, even here, he has in Jesus Christ. 
We see that in this rest he may be disturbed by his own lack ol 
faith, the results of which failure will be thorns in his side, and 
that only by a complete commitment of himself to the will of 
God will his rest be made perfect. We see, moreover, how our 
Joshua (Jesus) is the sole guide to this rest, so that as Jesus is 
both priest and sacrifice, both foundation and builder, so is He 
both the Rest and the Guide to it. In the light of the New 
Testament, this Book of Joshua will prove full of spiritual com- 
fort and edification to every seeking believer. God has placed 
it in the Canon, not to praise Joshua or Israel, but to teach and 
bless His dear people to the end of time." — Expository Notes on 
the Book of Joshua, by Howard Crosby. 



IN TROD UCTION 



17 



In these pages it is by no means a commentary, 
and scarcely an exposition, which is attempted ; but 
rather the unfolding of that Truth which is signified 
both there and elsewhere. The great theme of vic- 
tory through faith which is here opened has many 
parts. The Divine Epic which begins in History, 
reappears in the Psalms as Poetry, in Isaiah as Proph- 
ecy, in the teaching of Jesus as the highest of all 
Philosophy ; and, finally, in the Epistles as Expe- 
rience. So that if proper light is allowed to fall 
upon our Picture, it must be freely borrowed from 
the other portions of Scripture. The outline of the 
subject is so distinctly sketched, however, in the his- 
tory, as to require little change. 

The Book of Joshua would seem to be the special 
heritage of this generation. The mists that have 
hung so long around the hills, are rolling off, and 
many are lifting up rejoicing eyes to see how much 
more lies beyond them of Christian possibility than 
they had thought to reach. Surely the day in which 
we live is one of those set times in which God favors 
Zion. But while He thus dispels the darkness and 
gives us clearer light, so that things once unseen or 
dimly seen, now shine as the day, there may be, with 
not a few, a personal hindrance remaining ; — a veil not 
taken away in the reading of the New Testament. 
As the Israelite's veil kept him from seeing to the 
end of that which was commanded, so may the Chris- 
tian's veil keep him from seeing to the end of that 



1 7 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

which is promised. No struggles of our own, no pos- 
sible straining of our intellectual vision, can meet this 
difficulty. " Nevertheless when it shall turn to the 
Lord, the veil shall be taken away." 

Meanwhile, working in harmony with the Word and 
promises of God, there lies a vast power in Christian 
testimony to convince even veiled eyes of the privi- 
leges that await them. It is not often wise for such 
a testimony to put its own experience in the fore- 
ground ; and yet without such experience there could 
be no true testimony or even right knowledge. He 
who lays the scene of his story in a land of which 
he has only read and heard, will, with all his care, be 
sure to betray his ignorance. If he has only visited 
it, this also will appear. Even as a dweller in the 
land, there may still be local discrepancies to be 
detected. 

She who ventures in these pages to describe the 
Land of Blessing, so far as her feet have walked its 
length and breadth, has found it everywhere a good 
and glorious land ; and she can only hope that what 
her eyes have missed, or seen mistakenly, will find 
other and wiser witnesses. She gives this as her sim- 
ple contribution to the comprehension of all saints. 

It is her comfort to consider that it is not theory 
acutely thought out for which the Church of Christ 
is now longing, but practical truth, and to know alike 
from experience and observation that there is a Truth 
which, whether philosophically discerned or not, can 



INTRODUCTION. 



19 



yet assert its living power in the hearts of the hum- 
blest, and against all odds of nature. If others shall 
find in these pages a joy in the least proportionate 
to that which she has found in their preparation, it 
will be to her an unspeakable reward. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE LAND OF PROMISE. 

" "HEHOLD I HAVE SET THE LAND BEFORE YOU I 
-U GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND. " (Deut. i. 8). 

" He brought us out from thence, that he 
might bring us in, to give us the land. " 
{Dent. vi. 23). 

Before taking up the lessons of the Book of Joshua, 
we need to review the history which precedes it, so 
far as respects the promise made to the Israelites of 
the land of Canaan, and their failure to accept it. 

The full scope of their redemption was two-fold 
— out of Egypt and into Canaan ; but the latter was 
always the more prominent. 

In the earliest promise made to Moses, we read, 
" I am come down to deliver them out of the hand 
of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that 
land, into a good land and a large, unto a land flow- 
ing with milk and honey."" When the first promise 
had been fulfilled, and they sang their song of deliv- 
erance upon the shores of the Red Sea, their faith 
rose at once to claim the second, as the completion 

* Exodus iii. 8. 
(20I 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 2 \ 

of their triumph : " T/iou slialt bi'ing them in and 
plant them in the mountain of their inheritance, in 
the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to 
dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands 
have established."* 

Yet, closely as the two events are linked in promise, 
there was an intermediate stage between them. Egypt 
did not border upon Canaan, and, therefore, it could 
not be a single experience to be brought out, and to 
be brought in. Furthermore, the Lord did not choose 
to lead His people by the shortest possible way. Long 
before their unbelief had caused the forty years of 
wandering, we see a wise delay which is fully ex- 
plained. " And it came to pass that when Pharaoh 
had let the people go, that God led them not thro' 
the way of the land of the Philistines, although that 
was near, for God said lest peradventure the people 
repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt ; 
but God led the people about through the way of the 
wilderness of the Red Sea."f 

And again, the Red Sea crossed, we do not yet find 
the shortest route to Caanan chosen. They were led 
down to the back, side of the desert, nearly to the 
end of Arabia, to that mysterious land where God 
has chosen to train and discipline so many ; where 
Moses spent his forty years of preparation ; where 
Elijah went on his long journey, and where Paul also 



* Exodus xv. 17. t Exodus xiii. 17, 18. 



22 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

was sent for his secret training. This new-born na- 
tion had everything to learn, and Canaan would have 
been wasted upon its ignorance. So they were led 
down to Horeb, there to receive the Law from Sinai, 
and there to be trained as an encampment around the 
sacred Tabernacle. 

The books of Exodus and Leviticus give us thir- 
teen months of such a history. It is resumed in 
Numbers with the preparations for an advance " on 
the first day of the second month of the second 
year."* The voice of God now called them onward. 
" Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount ; turn 

you and take your journey Behold, I have 

set the land before you ; go in and possess the land. "-J* 
The length of the journey before them is stated, with 
precision, as eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh Bar- 
nea, the place where they were to enter.;): 

But now began delays which God had not ordered. 
They lusted for flesh, and for two days they stopped 
to gather quails ; and then for a whole month to dig 
the graves of them that lusted. Again, Miriam 
speaks against Moses ; she is not prepared to see the 
low exalted in these patterns of grace, and the alien 
made as the home-born — much less to see her own 
brother stoop from the leadership of a great nation 
to place by his side an Ethiopian woman. There- 
fore she is smitten with leprosy, and the whole camp 



* Numbers i. I. t Deut. i. 6-8. \ Deut. i. 2. 



THE LAXD OF PROMISE. 



23 



must wait seven days until she can rejoin them. In 
these and other ways the journey was prolonged for 
months, since, when they reached the land it was the 
time of the vintage. But while the delay was theirs, 
the way itself was God's, as we learn from the review 
of it which Moses gave : — " When we departed from 
Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible 
zvilderness .... as the Lord our God commanded 
us ; and we came to Kadesh Barnea."* 

Standing at last upon the border of the land, they 
should have entered it at once. Instead of this, we 
find another delay which, begging for only forty days, 
was recompensed with forty years. In Numbers we 
read that the Lord spake unto Moses, directing him 
to send the spies. f But in Deuteronomy, we learn 
that it was only a command accommodated to their 
choice, as so carefully stated by Moses : " I said unto 
you, ' Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amor- 
ites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. 
Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before 
thee : go up and possess it as the Lord God of thy 
fathers hath said unto thee ; fear not, neither be dis- 
couraged.' And ye came near unto me every one of 
you, and said, ' We will send men before us, and they 
shall search us out the land and bring us word again 
by what way we must go up and into what cities we 
shall come.' "J As afterwards, in giving them a king, 



* Deut. i. 19. f Numbers xiii. 1,2. \ Deut. i. 20-22. 



24 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



God yielded to their choice since they would not 
accept His. " :: " 

The report of the spies resulted in the failure to 
enter the land, and thus, for a long season, their life 
became abnormal — outside of the true plan of God, 
though not beyond His merciful care.f Leaving 
this failure as the subject of the following chapter, 
and pausing at that point when the possession of the 
land was brought within their immediate reach, let 
us seek the lesson here signified ; for " all these things 
happened unto them for ensamples." 

The scope of our redemption also is two-fold — " God 
hath saved us and called us with an holy calling.":]; 
This salvation and this calling are always coupled in 
the promises of God, and yet must be wrought out at 

* i Sam. viii. 9. 

t " If the Israelites had gone on to Canaan without inquiry, their 
confidence had possessed it. Now they send to espy the land ; 
six hundred thousand never lived to see it : and yet I see God 
enjoining it upon them to send ; but enjoining it upon their in- 
stance. Some things God allows in judgment : their importu- 
nity and distrust extorted from God this occasion of their over- 
throw. That which the Lord moves unto prospers ; but that 
which we move Him to first seldom succeedeth. What needed 
they doubt of the goodness of that land which God told them did 
flow with milk and honey ? What needed they doubt obtaining 
that which God promised to give ? When we will send forth 
our senses to be our scouts in the matters of faith, and rather 
dare trust men than God, we are worthy to be deceived." — . 
Bishop Hall's Contemplations. 

\ 2 Tim. i. Q. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



25 



separate stages. But as He brought them out that 
He might bring them in,* so we find the main stress 
of the Gospel falling upon this ultimate design. The 
Scriptures speak not so much of what we are saved 
from as of what we are saved unto ; and even the 
very word salvation is sometimes limited to the 
latter meaning. 

Such has not been, however, the most current teach- 
ing of the Church. Her efforts have been concen- 
trated far more upon the conversion of sinners than 
the nurture of the saints. We have had, consequently, 
more fishers of men than shepherds who could feed 
the flock, and justification has been more frequently 
and fully presented than sanctification.f We have 



* Deut, vi. 23, 

f Dr. Crawford, in his able work on the "Atonement," thus 
writes : " The mediatorial work and sufferings of Jesus Christ 
were intended, not only to obtain for us redemption from the 
guilt and penal consequences of sin, but also to secure our per- 
sonal sanctification. 

" This is a truth which has too frequently been overlooked. 
In speaking or thinking of the salvation which Christ has pur- 
chased, there are many who seem to attach to it no further idea 
than that of mere deliverance from condemnation. They forget 
that delivera?ice from sin — the cause of condemnation — is a no 
less important blessing comprehended in it. ... . 

"Nay, it would seem as if the former of these deliverances — ■ 
that is to say, our deliverance from sin itself — were represented 
in some passages of Scriptures as the grand and ultimate con- 
summation of redeeming grace, to which the latter, though in 
itself inestimably precious and important, is preparatory. Wit- 
ness these plain and forcible declarations : ' He died for all, that 
2 



26 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

reversed the proportions which are so apparent in 
the Epistles. St. Paul does not tell us so much of 
his anxiety to reach the hardened, as he does of his 
desire to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 
Respecting that, he tells us, " Whereunto I also labor, 
striving according to His working which worketh in 
me mightily."' 54 ' He does not speak of the prayers 
of Epaphras for those without, but he writes of his 
fervent prayers for those within, that they " might 
stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."f 
The five prayers of his own, which are given at some 

they who live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but 
unto Him who died for them and rose again? ' Christ loved 
the Church and gave Himself for it, that lie might sanctify and 
cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, and that He 
might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot 
or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and 
without blemish.' ' You that were sometimes alienated and 
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He recon- 
ciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, 
and unblamable, and unreproz'able in His sight.' 'He gave 
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.' 
l The blood of Jesus, who through the eternal Spirit offered Him- 
self without spot unto God, shall purge your conscience from 
dead works, to serve the living God.' k Who His ownself bore 
our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, 
might live unto righteousness' These statements seem to indi- 
cate that our redemption from the guilt and penal consequences 
of sin, was intended to be the means to an ulterior end — that 
end being our personal sanctification." — The Doctrine of Holy 
Scripture respecting the Atonement, pp. 194, 195. 

* Col. i. 28, 29. t Col. iv. 12. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



27 



length, all have a common burden — that the Church 
may see and receive the fulness of Christ. So, also, 
in the list of special gifts, he dwells in detail only 
upon those which have these objects — " the perfecting 
of the saints ; the work of the ministry ; the edifying 
of the body of Christ." * 

As we turn to the words of Christ, we find in that 
one most precious prayer of His which is left us, 
that He says expressly, " I pray not for the world, 
but for them which thou hast given Me ;" f and what 
a prayer ! — that they might have all His joy, His love, 
His glory ! 

It is not — God forbid the thought ! — that the Scrip- 
tures slight the salvation of any soul. But as it would 
have been little to the glory of God to have merely 
brought the people out of Egypt without giving 
them a home, so are we shown that Christ is only 
fully glorified in the glory of His Church. The House- 
hold of Faith is regarded as a family in which the 
responsibilities are not ended by the birth of the chil- 
dren. That any of them should remain unfed, sickly, 
dwarfed, is not for a moment to be allowed. Their 
nurture and full development is the one great object 
of the true Father. 

Again, we find a wrong impression prevalent as to 
what this Sanctification signifies. There are many 
who strongly urge its claims, but see in it only a 

* Eph. iv. 12. t John xvii. 9. 



28 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

further deliverance, as it is so often expressed, from 
the power as well as from the guilt of sin. 

But Sanctification is not so much a removal as an 
impartation. That which Christ takes from us is as 
nothing to that which He gives us ; and it is this 
positive, rather than the negative, side of the truth, 
which the Scriptures everywhere present, and which 
is most clearly set forth in this type of the call to 
Canaan. It was a bestowment, an inheritance, a fore- 
shadowing of all those spiritual blessings with which 
God has blessed us in Jesus Christ. 

Few Christians are without a vague sense of some- 
thing good that is set before them. But there is 
immense gain in its clearer comprehension. Let us, 
therefore, look more definitely at that which the Holy 
Ghost has signified in this instance. 

The entering of the Land of Promise is spoken of 
frequently as entering into Rest. Settlement was to 
take the place of constant change. It was to be a 
Home, which the desert could not be ; for, apart from 
its failure to supply their needs, everything was tran- 
sient, and it was useless to plant or build in a land 
through which they were only journeying. And the 
contrast was made stronger from the fact that they 
were spared the weary waiting of preparation. God 
set before them, in His promise, a Home where all 
was ready for their coming, — " Great and goodly cities, 
which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good 
things which thou filledst not, and wells digged which 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



2 9 



thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive-trees which 
thou plantedst not."* 

And in such rest as this might every one of those 
families of Israel have been found speedily ; and not 
only in Rest, but in the satisfying Bounty which it 
implied. What a contrast was that which awaited 
them, from the old life of Egypt. Weary hands that 
made the bricks, tired feet that watered the dry land, 
now at rest with only healthy toil, and the poor 
slaves lifted up from the very dung-hill to sit like 
princes in their pleasant homes among the hills and 
valleys — their hunger satisfied with better things than 
the coarse food of Egypt — with better things than 
manna even — with corn and oil, and honey and wine, 
and all else that could strengthen, and enrich, and 
sweeten, and cheer their life. 

It was true that enemies filled the Land, and that 
warfare also awaited them. But had not God prom- 
ised to deal with these seven nations even as He dealt 
with Pharaoh, and would He not do it ? So, then, 
it was not so much warfare as Victory of which God 
spoke. Therefore no fear, no discouragement was to 
dampen their ardent hopes as they passed on theii 
way to Rest, and Wealth, and Triumph. 

And to Rest, and unsearchable Riches, and a great 
Victory, are we also called, finding them all in the 
Lord Jesus. He is Himself the anti-type of that 
good land and large. Our calling is, to be " in Christ." 

* Deut. vi. 10, 11. 



30 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



The first and deepest need of our being is rest. St. 
Augustine among all his sayings, has none sweeter 
or stronger than this, " Thou hast made us for Thy- 
self, and our heart is restless till it rests in Thee." * 

But there is a saying that surpasses this ; it is the 
call of Christ to all the children of men, soft and 
soothing as a mother's lullaby, " Come unto Me, and 
/will rest you." It is rest first, and after that all else 
that He holds for us. 

Nor is it rest as opposed only to the toil of sin, but 
also the unrest of Christian activity. Our Rest should 
be like our Sabbath, a beginning of the days. Under 
the Law, as still under all Legality, the order was, 
work at the first, and day after day until the seventh, 
when the labor shall end in rest. But when Christ 
rose from the dead, that first day of the week became 
the hallowed one, consecrated to rest, and life, and 
joy. And from that living, joyful rest in Him, the 
whole being energized and fitted for its task, the soul 
can go on to serve Him to the end. It has found rest 
because it has ceased from working in its own strength, 
ceasebl from its own will, and now God worketh in it 
to will and to do of His good pleasure. Practically, 
it makes the widest possible difference whether we 
work up to rest or from it. 



* Fecisti nos ad te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donee requies- 

cat in te Quies est apud te valde et vita imperturbabilis. 

Qui intrat in te, ititrat in gandium Domini Sui ; et non timebit, 
et habebit se optime in optimo. — Confess., Lib. I. I, and II. 18. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



31 



When this rest has preceded our work, it will also 
permeate it, and will render it calm, undistracted, un- 
oppressive. It has been said, " Faith rests while it 
works. This is a peculiarity of the true Gospel. No 
false religion could teach it. Many professed disciples 
of Christ Himself — men to whom the name of religi- 
ous persons can not be denied — never learn it. True 
faith rests habitually, rests in working. It is a para- 
dox ; but a paradox full of truth, full of beauty, full 
of admonition."* 

This rest can be ours in no other way than as a gift 
from Christ. Such deep repose of soul is neither found 
in man, nor can be evolved out of any of his powers. 
Only as the strong and loving arms of Jesus are folded 
around it, shall the tired and tossed soul be rested. 

Is the heart burdened still at times with the weight 
of old sins ? Are there seasons when " the spirit of 
fret and fuss" disorder it? Is it strained with anxie- 
ties ? Is its work ever a weariness ? Above all, has 
it wandered like a wayward child into forbidden paths, 
and found no shelter? Such a soul needs not that 
any should tell it that it has not yet come to the 
rest which God has promised — that, more or less, it 
is falling short of it. How far short, we can tell best 
by looking at the Divine copy of it — Jesus Himself. 

In studying that life in its human aspects, we do 
not behold the favorite of Fortune, nor the creature 
of circumstances. The rest of Jesus was conditioned 
* Voices of the Prophets, C. J.Vaughan, D.D., p. 81. 



32 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



by nothing outward. But we trace a silent power 
that ruled His whole being-, the poise of a human 
spirit in perfect harmony with the will of God — ever 
going forth to meet that will, and never waiting to 
be overtaken by it. Calm in His most crowded work, 
calm in every peril, calm in His utmost suffering and 
agony, never for a moment excited, unbalanced, 
fevered or fretted — this is He who still calls, "Come 
unto Me, and I will rest you." How much is signi- 
fied in that promise we can not know, except as Chris- 
tian expectation passes into experience. 

But rest is not the only hope of our calling. We 
are promised the supply of all our need ; not only of 
such wants as we now feel, but of those also which 
shall be first awakened by the sight of unbounded 
treasure. Certainly if anything is clear in the Word 
of God it is this bounty. The " Unsearchable Riches 
of Christ" is a cognomen of the Gospel. All riches 
of the full assurance of understanding, all that can 
nourish and adorn, encompass with comforts and 
develop this new spiritual life, all possible wealth 
of grace and love, — all these spiritual blessings are 
given us " in the hcavenlies" in Christ Jesus. Nor is 
the least portion of this wealth the privilege of shar- 
ing it with others, and of making it even more blessed 
to give than to receive — by such a law excluding all 
possible satiety, and providing ever-enlarged powers 
of enjoyment. In brief, the promise runs, " All things 
are yours ;" and the eager soul, escaping from the 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 33 

poverty of its bondage, looks on confidently to a day 
nigh at hand when it shall have no want unsatisfied. 

But with these promises of Rest and Riches there is 
linked a third — of Victory. At first the soul has 
little thought of enemies, save such as it has already 
known. Pharaoh and the hosts of Egypt, from these 
it fled ; from the despotism of Satan and the low 
bondage of this world. God, ordinarily, shields the 
newly-converted soul from the sight of struggles be- 
yond, leading it about by other easier ways, and let- 
ting its thought be concentrated, for a time, on the 
great facts of forgiveness and deliverance. Its first 
fears come from the pursuing foes ; but so signal is 
the overthrow of these, that even the certainty of 
seven mightier nations before it can bring no terror. 
To Faith, the future is as sure as the past, and the 
whole process of victory appears like one continuous 
work of God. Like Israel upon the seashore, even 
while we are singing to the Lord who hath tri- 
umphed gloriously, we go on to celebrate the whole. 
" The people shall hear and be afraid : sorrow shall 
take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina — all the 
inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away."* That God 
should save us from the hands of one enemy to let 
us fall into the hands of another, is simply incon- 
ceivable to a child-like faith. 

The completeness of this victory has been described 
for us in one of the holy songs that heralded the 
* Exodus xv. 14, 15. 



34 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

coming of Christ, when Zacharias tells us that God 
would grant us — " that we being delivered out of the 
hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, 
in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days 
of our life."* And this he calls, first, God's promise, 
and then, His covenant, and, finally, His oath,f so 
giving us three immutable securities. 

The nature of these enemies and the secret of this 
victory, will need to be considered in another connec- 
tion ; but, meanwhile, this may be assumed as the 
proper position in which the Gospel places us. — "Now 
thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph 
in Christ." 

Such is the Land of Promise set before us. It is, 
indeed, the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of 
Christ. Probably no Christian ever entered at once 
upon such an inheritance. Apart from the gracious 
shielding from our foes, already alluded to, there are 
still other reasons why the Lord for awhile should 
lead us about. Some one has said that it takes God 
much longer to prepare us for a blessing, than it does 
to give it when we are ready to receive it. It is in 
perfect harmony with the processes of all lower life, 
that our spiritual life should have a space allowed 
for development and training. When Jesus had com- 
passion on the shepherdless multitude, all that even 
He could do for them was to begin to teach them 
many things. And He had taught His own disciples 

* Luke i. 74, 75. t Luke i. 72, 73. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



35 



for years when He said, " I have yet many things 
to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now." 

As they stood around Sinai to receive the Law, so 
do we need to gather around Jesus as He sits upon 
another mountain, making that old Law new, and 
giving us, not the curse, but the blessing. All knowl- 
edge requires time for its acquisition ; but Christian 
knowledge demands it still more, since it is valueless 
until it becomes experimental. 

Again, there are certain steps which we must take 
before any marked advance can be made. The les- 
sons in the first chapter of Numbers are full of mean- 
ing to us. The people were required to declare their 
pedigree,* and to be enrolled under their proper stand- 
ards. Before we attempt to reach this fulness of 

* " Can I declare my pedigree ? It is greatly to be feared there 
are hundreds, if not thousands, of professing Christians who are 
wholly incompetent to do so. They can not say with clearness 
and decision, ' Now are we the sons of God ' (i John iii. 2). 
' Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And if 
ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to 
the promise ' (Gal. iii. 26-29). • For as many as are led by the Spirit 
of God, they are the sons of God.' ' The Spirit itself beareth wit- 
ness with our spirit that we are the sons of God ' (Rom. viii. 
14 16). 

"This is the Christian's 'pedigree,' and it is his privilege to 
be able to ' declare ' it. He is born from above — born again — 
born of water and the spirit ; /. e., by the word and by the Holy 
Ghost (compare, diligently, John iii. 5 • James i. 18 ; 1 Peter i. 
23 ; Eph. v. 26). The believer traces his pedigree directly up to 
a risen Christ in glory, This is Christian genealogy." — Notes 011 
the Book of Numbers, by C. H. M., pp. 8, 9. 



36 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

blessing, our sonship must become an established fact 
— the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit 
that we are the children of God ; and as distinctly 
must we have accepted the warfare and the service to 
which He calls us. None can be counted in that army 
till he can say, " Whose I am and whom I serve." 

The importance of this can not be too strongly 
stated, so large is the proportion of those who are in 
doubt, at times, as to their being really the children 
of God. 

But, again, how true to the history of Israel are 
the hindrances which we ourselves occasion — true 
even to their very character. It is still by demand- 
ing the visible in the place of the Invisible, that wo 
begin to fall from our faith. And then it is by the 
lust of other things entering in — the revival of some 
old desire. And yet again by presuming to speal< 
against those whom God has set over us. 

But none of these begin to compare, in their con- 
sequences, with that sin of unbelief by which the 
Land was forfeited. And that sin, as we see in the 
type, began by what might be termed experimenting 
upon God's ivord — looking at the human chances for 
His promise holding good. They overlooked the 
fact made so clear in this promise, that the redemp- 
tion and the inheritance were equally God's work and 
gift. " They soon forgot His word ;" and at the root 
of this forgetfulness lay that self-sufficiency which 
w?.s finally to issue in despair. Such ha9 ever been 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



37 



the working of the human heart ; and because of this 
tendency such care is taken in the presentation of 
the Gospel to convince us that, as forgiveness is not 
of the Law, no more is our righteousness, but equally 
with that a gift, and by grace. 

Sanctiflcation is by faith as truly and fully as is 
justification. The voice that lifted Luther from his 
weary climbing of the stair-way, saying, " The just 
shall live by faith," was a voice calling to all Christen- 
dom through him. And it needs that same voice of 
God to rouse the weary climbers up their arduous 
way, and to make the bowed spirits of thousands 
exultant with hope. Yet it needs no new message ; 
for of the life more abundantly, as well as of the 
least that can be called life, is it true that " the just 
shall live by faith." " Through faith that is in Me," 
was the sole condition announced by the Lord Jesus, 
as covering not only " forgiveness of sins," but an "in- 
heritance among them which are sanctified." * 

This Land of Promise to which we are thus so 
clearly called in the Lord Jesus Christ — this fulness 
of blessing — is it, or is it not, the prevalent experience 
of Christians ? Have they so believed, that while 
looking on to the glorious appearing of Christ as the 
completion of their hope, and the final triumph, they 
have in the meantime entered into this rest ? 

And if in answer to this a charge must be brought 
against not a few of the children of God, let it be 
* Acts xx vi. 1 8. 



38 THE FULNESS CF BLESSING. 

done in the chanty that hopeth all things, and that 
seeks only to help those whom an enemy hath hin- 
dered. 

A leading divine in the Church of England has 
said plainly, what is, doubtless, quite as applicable to 
our own land as to his, " The impression has been 
that people knew everything about Christian duty, 
and have no need to be enlightened on that head. 
And if by Christian duty be meant simply the moral 
law of God, in its outward, literal aspect, perhaps the 
impression is, more or less, correct, at least as regards 
the educated classes. But if by Christian duty be 
meant sanctity of life and character, and a growing 
conformity to the image of the Lord Jesus, we must 
be pardoned for expressing our conviction, that our 
best and most respectable congregations have very 
little insight into the thing itself, and still less into 
the method of its attainment."* 

Such shortcoming as is here spoken of, is the less 
likely to be usually regretted, as the true standard is 
so rarely presented. But seeking that standard in the 
Scriptures, turning fresh from its glowing presentation 
of Christ and His fulness, surely all will admit that it 
is not merely an exception, but a rare one, to see any 
such state of blessedness in actual life. 

There are many who believe in such fulness, and 
dare not let go their faith in it ; but they are com- 

* " Thoughts on Personal Religion," by Edward Meyrick 
Goulburn, D.D., p. 12. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



39 



pelled to confess that they have not found it. There 
are many who have seen it with their eyes, and 
reached out eager hands to it ; but they do not hold 
it. They strive, they wrestle ; but it seems ever to 
elude them. The ideal does not become the real, 
and " the there is never here." 

Christians grow reconciled to a state which has 
become so common, and then from concluding it to 
be a universal experience, they end by regarding it as 
a necessity. 

But such can never be the earliest expectation of 
a soul that has heard for itself, and from Jesus, the 
call to come unto Him. Every one who has heard 
that call, knew that it was " to glory and virtue ;" and 
that as surely as the land of Canaan was set before 
the Israelites, while God said, " Go up and possess 
it," so surely has His Voice come to our hearts, 
saying, " Go up into the heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus, where I will bless you with all spiritual bless- 
ings. Go up and possess the peace that passeth 
understanding, even perfect peace. Go up and dwell 
in Christ, and, therefore, dwell in love, a perfect love, 
that casteth out all fear. Go up and be filled with 
all the fulness of God. Go up and always triumph 
in Christ Jesus." 

And now falling back upon our allegory, let us 
venture, for the sake of an illustration, to add to it a 
simple fable. 



40 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



Suli, an Egyptian philosopher, is returning home 
from a long journey, and in crossing the desert, sud- 
denly comes upon the camp of the Israelites. It is a lit- 
tle over a year since they left his own land, but he has 
not heard of it, and is full of wonder. In no unfriendly 
spirit he enters the tent of a man whom he had once 
known as a slave, now a prince among his people, 
Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the head of the 
tribe of Judah.* He sits down and listens with pro- 
found interest to the account of the plagues ; of the 
last fearful night ; the sprinkled blood and the Pass- 
over Lamb ; the crossing of the Red Sea on foot, 
and the drowning of all their pursuers. He is told 
also of the discipline and training of the people. The 
giving of the Law at Sinai is described, and the sig- 
nificance of their worship. Full of astonishment, it 
is now his turn to speak. 

" Marvel not, O Nahshon, that thy servant is well- 
nigh silent with astonishment. No tale like this hath 
mine ear ever heard. And not the least wonderful 
of all is that which mine own eyes can see, the 
change in the people themselves. I doubt not these 
words of thine concerning any of those great won- 
ders. And yet this is the miracle to me : When I 
set out from Egypt but two years since, you were, 
as thou thyself knowest, a most abject people. And 
I find you here a well-governed nation — an army 
trained for the battle. Truly, O Nahshon, thy people 
* Num. i. 7. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 4I 

deserve this freedom. But now let me ask of thee 
your purpose for the future. You can not surely live 
always in this desert, and I see you are still journey- 

tog." 

" I have yet to tell thee of this, O Suli," replies the 
Prince, " as the chief thing of all. A good land and 
large has been given us. The land of Canaan was 
promised to our father Abraham hundreds of years 
since, and the promise repeated to his heirs Isaac 
and Jacob. And when the Lord first spake of our 
deliverance to Moses, He told him precisely how He 
would first bring us out of Egypt, and then into Ca- 
naan. Having performed the one, He is now prepar- 
ing for the other ; and though we have by our way- 
wardness hindered Him, yet we are now upon the 
very eve of entering the Land." 

" But art thou, O Nahshon, sure of this ? Dost thou 
not fear the struggle ? I have myself passed through 
the land, and the tribes holding it are fierce and 
strong. They are well-armed, and have walled cities. 
It is true, the country is exceedingly fair and fertile. 
It could not well be better suited to your wants, but 
pardon thy servant, O Nahshon, if he can but doubt 
if you ever come to possess it. What, then, if you 
should fail ? What other plan have you to fall back 
upon ? Is there still any other country where you 
could get a foothold ?" 

" We were never promised any other, and as we 
have so long been promised this, we can see no possi- 



42 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



ble reason why we should not get it. It is not at all 
more impossible than our rescue from Egypt. And 
were it, O Suli, even tenfold harder than thou think- 
est, it would matter naught, for our God never makes 
a promise which He can not keep." 

" But still, in case you should fail, which wouldst 
thou judge to be wisest — to go back to Egypt, or 
attempt to live in this desert ?" 

" We shall never return to Egypt. Thinkest thou, 
O Suli, that we could at all endure its bondage now? 
And as for this desert, it is only a place to pass 
through. We have learned from its hardships both 
self-denial and faith in God. But surely we could 
never become what we are told we shall be, with such 
surroundings. Besides, it would be out of all keep- 
ing with the ways of our God. However, we need 
not consider such a case. Verily, O Suli, I do wrong 
to even suppose it. As our father Abraham has said, 
' What God has promised He is able also to perform /'" 

" This, then, is thy thought, O Nahshon, that your 
Helper is so mighty that there is no need to think 
at all of your own weakness. Thy trust in thy God 
is sublime indeed. But tell thy servant, — are there 
no conditions ? Is there nothing left to yourselves 
to fulfil, so that a chance of failure remaineth after 
all ? " 

" Yes, Suli, there are conditions, yet not of our 
strength, but simply of our faith in God. He might 
delay His promise, or even break it if we failed to 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



43 



trust Him. But how could that ever happen ? We 
have had so many proofs of what He is and of what 
He does, that to begin now to doubt whether He 
will keep His word or not, were to deny almost His 
very being — a God of Truth and a God of all Power. 
As I said before, so say I now again, O Suli, 
* What God has promised He is able also to 

PERFORM.' " 



and wiblamable, and unreprovable in His sight* 'He gave 
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and 

purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.' 
4 The blood of Jesus, who through the eternal Spirit offered Him- 
self without spot unto God, shall purge your conscience from 
dead works, to serve the livmg God' 4 Who His ownself bore 
our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, 
might live unto righteousness' These statements seem to indi- 
cate that our redemption from the guilt and penal consequences 
of sin, was intended to be the means to an ulterior end — that 
end being our personal sanctification." — The Doctrine of Holy 
Scripture respecting the Atonement, pp. 194, 195. 

* Col. i. 28, 29. f Col. iv. 12. 

* Cf. 1 Cor. x. 6; 1 Cor. x. 11. 

upon this law of mutual resemblance. The study of Scripture 
derives from it much of its charm and interest, for each special 
aspect of Divine truth can be perfectly combined with every other. 
Nay, more, the whole scheme of nature, the whole history of life 

is based upon the law in question All things, according to 

the poet, by a law divine, mingle in one another's being. And 
if the discovery of profound resemblances of form and analogies 

of structure, where others see only wide divergencies and palpa- 
ble contrasts, be to the naturalist one of the purest of his pleas- 
ures, inasmuch as it brings him into contact with the Great Mind 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 

U CO WE SEE THAT THEY COULD NOT ENTER 
^ IN BECAUSE OF UNBELIEF." — (Hcb. iii. 19.) 

The men to whom the searching of the land was 
entrusted were no ordinary spies. Chosen from each 
of the tribes, they were all " heads of the children 
of Israel " — " every one a ruler." " So they went up 
and searched the land ;"* and a search that extended 
through forty days must have been a thorough one. 
From north to south they saw with wondering eyes 
such bounties as they had never seen before. They 
passed on to the shores of the great sea. They be- 
held Lebanon and its cedars. They rested before 
the peaks of Hermon and Carmel. They followed 
the bed of the Jordan from the beautiful lake where 
it is born, to that sea in which it dies. They marked 
the countless hills and valleys, and the multitude of 
brooks. They saw, also, their enemies, the strong- 
holds, and the very giants. They went to the graves 
of their fathers at Hebron, and saw there in that old 
city the three sons of Anak, whose names are so sin- 
gularly preserved, f 

One can but listen in imagination to the talk of 

* Num. xiii. 21. \ Num. xiii. 22. 

(44^ 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 



45 



these men as they journey over those hills. What 
outbursts of joy — what sighs of dismay ! What rea- 
soning in their hearts, and what constant interchange 
of hopes and fears ! 

And now they have returned, and the whole con- 
gregation, with Moses and Aaron at their head, stand 
around, ready to listen to the travellers. " Beautiful 
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth 
good tidings ;" and blessed might their feet have been 
that day. There is a hush of expectation : " We 
came into the land and surely it floweth with milk 
and honey ;" and then, slowly lifting that heavy 
cluster of grapes of Eshcol from the staff resting 
upon the shoulders of two of them, and upraising 
it in the sight of all,— " This is the fruit of it ! "* 
What visions of plenty are swimming before all 
those straining eyes ! How the little children even 
clap their hands for joy ! 

But listen, the men have not told all ! " Neverthe- 
less the people be strong that dwell in the land, and 
the cities are walled and very great ; and, moreover, 
we saw the children of Anak there." And now, 
with a minuteness not given to the other side of the 
picture, they go on to describe their enemies : " The 
Amalekites dwell in the land of the south : and the 
Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in 
the mountains : and the Canaanites dwell by the sea 
and by the coast of Jordan/' f 

* Num. xiii. 27. f Num. xiii. 28, 29. 



. 




46 , THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



■ - 



Aj ;oi>ce all those eager faces are downcast, and 
murmurs and cries are heard. And why should they 
nptrfear ? These men who speak are their rulers — ■ 
their leaders. If such are terrified, why not they ? 
Therefore, it seems a decisive voice — a voice of 
authority. But now Caleb, who has claimed by faith 
his own possession, and knows better than any what 
foes they have to meet, stands forth to still the peo- 
ple : " Let us go up at once and possess it ; for we 
are well able to overcome it." * By his side is 
Joshua, but they are only two, and the ten again 
repeat : " We be not able to go up against the peo- 
ple, for they are stronger than we."f And now they 
forget all else, and their fears swollen by this tide.of 
popular feeling, they go on to present the darkest 
possible picture, which, as truthful men, they could 
venture to give : " The land through which we have 
gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhab- 
itants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are 
men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, 
the sons of Anak, which come of the giants : and we 
were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we 
were in their sight ! " % 

O Princes of Israel ! if only as ye went upon your 
way, ye had bethought yourselves to sing once more 
the song ye once sang so well : " All the inhab- 
itants of Canaan shall melt away. Thy right hand, 
O Lord, is glorious in power ! " § But no, they for- 
* Num. xiii. 30. f Num. xiii. 31. % Num. xiii. 33. § Ex. xv. 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 



47 



got even to make mention of His name. They saw 
only themselves and their enemies ; and so seeing, it 
was but a slight hyperbole to draw the contrast of 
grasshoppers and giants. They had lost sight of the 
Lord. Had they only lost sight of themselves, while 
they looked to Him, how different had been the con- 
trast — no longer between grasshoppers and giants, 
but between giants and God ! Would the feet of a 
giant fall heavily upon the grasshopper in his path ? 
Much more would the strongest enemy melt away 
before the advancing feet of the Lord strong and 
mighty ! And herein it was " an evil report " rather 
than a false one, that it ignored God — His promise 
and His power. 

All that night throughout the vast camp, lying 
down but the night before to happy dreams of the 
land so close before them, is heard the sound of 
weeping.* And well may they weep, cince they 
had lost that buoyant hope. The terror and grief 
become at last a panic. As the strong men look 
upon their wives and children, who give way to still 
more violent emotion, they ask, with indignation, 
" Are these to be a prey ? Wherefore hath the Lord 
brought us into this land ? Were it not better for 
us to return into Egypt ? " f And at once the bold 
decision is made by which they take themselves out 
of God's hand — " Let us make a Captain and let us 
return into Egypt." 

* Num. xiv. i. t Num. xiv. 3, 4. 



48 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

But who shall be the Captain to lead them back ? 
Not Moses, not Aaron. They are fallen flat upon 
their faces before all the people. Meanwhile, Joshua 
and Caleb make another attempt to rally the host. 
" The land which we passed through to search it, is 
an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, 
then He will bring us into this land and give it us ; a 
land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel 
not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people 
of the land ; for they are bread for us : their defence 
is departed from them, and the Lord is with us : fear 
them not." * The bravest and noblest words that 
ever came to rally a panic-stricken host ! Yet they 
only vex and anger the people. And for standing 
there and saying no new thing, saying only what 
God had always said, they well-nigh met the fate of 
Stephen — M All the congregation bade stone them 
with stones. "f 

But another voice is heard. As they look up, be- 
fore all their eyes, shining from out the Tabernacle, 
appears the glory of the Lord. He speaks to Moses : 
" How long will this people provoke me ? and how 
long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs 
which I have shewed among them ? " % I n these words 
we see at once their real offence, and what sin of sins 
it was that stirred Him thus. Even at their last re- 
bellion it was something deeper than their lust that 
had chiefly grieved Him ; for " a fire was kindled 

* Num. xiv. 7-9. t Num. xiv. 10. \ Num. xiv. 11. 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 49 

against Jacob, and anger came up against Israel, be- 
cause they believed net in God, and trusted not in his 
salvation." * But this word of God which they be- 
lieved not now, was a word so often given, so old, so 
ever new, that not to believe it was, indeed, to deny 
Him. What marvel that He said to Moses, " I will 
disinherit them I" The sublime pleading of Moses 
with his God, that unworthy as the people were, He 
would yet regard His own honor among the heathen, 
won at last the gracious answer, " I have pardoned 
according to thy word."f But Pardon more often 
wisely includes chastisement, than excludes it ; and 
even because He kept them as His children, must 
His hand be heavy upon them. Ten times the 
men who had seen His glory, and all His signs, had 
tempted Him.J Their trial was complete. They 
could not see the land. — " To-morrow turn you and 
get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." 
And, so saying, He did but take them at their own 
word. They would not believe His Word, therefore 
their own should come to pass — " As truly as I live, 
saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in my ears, so will 
I do to you : Your carcasses shall fall in this wilder- 
ness Doubtless ye shall not come into the 

land concerning which, I sware to make you dwell 

therein And ye shall know my breach of 

promise." § 



* Ps. lxxviii. 19-22. t Num. xiv. 20. 

t Num. xiv. 22. § Num. xiv. 28-34. 

3 



5o 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



Slowly, but surely, the weary length of forty years, 
were more than half a million of men to whom God 
had given a home in Canaan, to find their graves in 
the sand of the desert. There was little to break the 
monotony of that nomad existence; but one toil never 
ceased. Day after day,they carried forth out of their 
camp the score or more of corpses of soldiers, who had 
fallen, not in battle, but because of their unbelief. 

A still sadder doom was assigned to the ten spies. 
We justly count among the sins of darkest dye the 
deliberate slander of a fellow-being. But these men 
had slandered God. Upon the face of it, it was only 
an evil report against the land. But in reality it was 
charging God both with untruthfulness and ineffi- 
ciency: and for such a sin as this, "they died by the 
plague before the Lord."* 

Finally, we find that presumption takes the place 
of faith. They recognize at last their fearful mistake, 
but not to humbly repent of it. Only their strong 
and stubborn wills refuse the punishment. Going up 
against their enemies to be smitten and discomfited, 
they have to learn that not a step is safe unless God 
go before them. 

Forty years in the wilderness ! For forty years 
grieving the Lord, and chastened by Him ! And yet 
even this is used to show forth His long-suffering and 
goodness — " Being full of compassion," not even then 
did He " stir up all His wrath." 
* Num. xiv. 37. 



THE FAIL URE OF UNBELIEF. c i 

There is a brief review of this period in the Acts, 
which forms a most interesting sequel to a statement 
of Moses. The latter, in reviewing the period previ- 
ous to the provocation, says to the people : " Thou 
hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a 
man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went 
until ye came unto this place."* The Apostle Paul 
takes the same view of the entire period. " And about 
the time of forty years, even as a nurse beareth her 
child, so bare He them through the wilderness. f " 

So they were still His people — fed, guided, and 
defended by Him ; and possibly abusing these very 
mercies, in concluding that even by these they might 
measure the lightness of their offence. 

We might well suppose such a lesson as this his- 
tory furnishes to be too significant for the Scriptures 
to be silent respecting it. It is, in fact, one of 
the most clearly applied among all these allegorical 
events. Unquestionably it is the key-note of the 

* Deut. i. 31. 

t Acts xiii. 18. "The beauty of this metaphor has been lost 
to the authorized version on account of the reading (hrpo-Koty- 
bpriozv instead of hpocbocpSpTjaev) adopted in the Textus Receptus. 
Griesbach, Scholz, and Lachman restored the latter reading on 
the authority of the Uncial MSS., A. C. E. We regret to see 
that Teschendorf has reinstated the former reading (because it 
has a somewhat greater weight of MSS. of the Greek Testament 
in its favor) without taking into account the evident allusion to 
Deut. i. 31, where ToofyotyoprjaaL is acknowledged to be the correct 
reading." — Cony bear e and How son s Life and Epistles of St. 
Paul, vol. i. chap. vi. 



52 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



Epistle to the Hebrews, and with what distinctness 
is it announced : — " With whom was He grieved forty 
years ? was it not with them that had sinned, whose 
carcasses fell in the wilderness ? And to whom sware 
He that they should not enter into His rest, but to 
them that believed not ? So we see that they could 
not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore 
fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His 
rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For 
unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto 
them ; but the word preached did not profit them, 
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 
For we which have believed do enter into rest." * 

Alas ! that the a?iy for whom He feared should 
ever mean the many — that a time should come when 
the majority of Christians — the great mass of them, 
indeed — should at least seem to come short of this 
fulness of blessing. We believe them to be children 
of God — for they have known the sprinkling of the 
blood of the Lamb, and have come out from the 
world into new life in Christ Jesus. They have been 
at Sinai and have listened to the Law, and have 
come up more or less fully to its moral standard. 
But beyond their present experience lie half the 
promises of God, and by far the more glorious half 
yet unfulfilled. No one could venture to claim that 
the rich gifts of God, even to all spiritual blessings in 
heavenly places in Christ, are in the general posses- 

* Heb. iii. 17 — iv. 3. 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 53 

sion of the Church. The spirituality of Christians 
docs not satisfy themselves, even according to their 
own low standard. 

There is a class of teachers who distinguish very 
widely between our standing and our state ; claiming 
that however it may be as to the latter, any one who is 
in Christ at all has, by reason of the former, all these 
blessings. But it is this practical difference, phrase 
it as we may, that is so emphasized in Holy Scrip- 
ture. It was a difference wide enough between prom- 
ise and possession, to call forth God's utter displeasure 
of old. It is a difference wide enough now, between 
what He has given us in Christ, and what we have 
received in Him, to leave room for holy fear of exceed- 
ing loss. The poor man may call himself rich the 
moment he hears of the estate bequeathed him ; but 
it still profits him nothing till he has obtained it ; as; 
we find, indeed, the bequest itself declares : " Every 
place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that 
have I given unto you," 

There is, however, another distinction to be drawn 
between the Travellers and the Wanderers ; between 
the Travellers following Him who leadeth them about 
even with all their lingering, and who will speedily 
bring them to the Border of the Land ; and the Wan- 
derers turning back in unbelief and disobedience to 
spend all their lives in that wilderness — always com- 
ing short. 

As to the manner of this failure, the analogy is very 



54 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

close between theirs and ours. It came about then, 
by their pausing to prove the promises of God by 
human opinion. When God said, "Go up all of you 
and possess the land," they said, " Nay, but we will 
let twelve of our foremost men go up first, and bring 
us word about it, and we will abide by their judg- 
ment." And it is still, through leaning to the word of 
man, instead of listening singly to the voice of God, 
that we expose ourselves to further temptation. 

But how justly responsible were they held, who let 
their own faithless fears turn back the multitude ! 
Do the ministers of Christ, indeed, understand what 
it means to be set for the defence of the Gospel ? 
Do they all remember that only as they are taught 
by the Holy Spirit, can they possibly teach spiritual 
truth ? Do not some of them assume the guidance 
of immortal souls, when with a like lack of knowledge 
they would never dream of steering a ship upon the 
seas? 

And what is the report which they bring of our 
Land of Promise ? As they stand before the people, 
do they cheer them on, by telling them what good 
things are in reserve for them, and how sure God is 
to give them to all that seek ? 

We touch upon a most vital theme when we ask, 
What is the ministry of this age ? 

There is one sort more prevalent than is suspected, 
in which Christ and His doctrines are made subordi- 
nate — often one may hope unconsciously — to philoso- 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 



55 



phy, erudition, and rhetoric. The only place which 
is left for the Gospel, is that of a prologue, or a perora- 
tion, or sometimes even a parenthesis. The sadness 
of it is, that such sermons are often preached with 
much acceptance ; and the sorrow of it is, they are 
sometimes preached by, apparently, earnest and sin- 
cere men, who are trammeled by training, or what 
they suppose to be the demands of the age. They 
are men it may be of many gifts ; but none the less 
is the hearer left like the poor starved Traveller in 
the fable, who found a pilgrim's pouch beside a well, 
and cried, " Here is my food !" but as he opened it, 
he sighed, "Alas ! they are only pearls !" O ye who 
teach the people, — tricking out the Truth of God in all 
your finery that she may pass with credit — trust her 
in her white-robed simplicity. Have you not some- 
times seen with shame how the homely, wholesome 
barley-loaf was eagerly eaten, when all your fine con- 
fections failed ! 

But passing by this class, and coming to the de- 
voted men who desire to be utterly faithful in their 
stewardship — do they tell of these spiritual privi- 
leges? Do they seek — "striving mightily" — to 
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus ? Do not 
even these falter? Or, if the fulness of Christ be 
proclaimed, is it not often as a study for our admira- 
tion ? If the beauty of holiness be delineated, is it 
not as one of the lost Arts ? Is it often preached not 
only as a possible, but a probable attainment ? 



56 THE FULNESS OF BLESSIXG. 

There is a reason for this neglect, which may be 
assigned the more freely, as it would be the reason 
often given by God's servants themselves — that they 
have no such experience ; and that they can not 
really expect their hearers to be influenced by mere 
precept. A joint reason might be added, that they do 
not see around them the living examples of such truth. 

At the same time there can be little doubt that 
many most honestly hold back, because they have 
proved some flaw in the teaching, or some falsity in 
the life, of those who have attempted to present the 
higher truths of the Gospel. They are thus far right, 
that of all shams, that of Sanctification is the most 
sickening — of all hollow pretences, that of holiness is 
most fearful. But all falsities, all crudities, by which 
man may surround the Truth, do not for a moment 
make that Truth itself less real or less lovely. 

Of old, they were ten against two, who brought the 
evil report, and discouraged the hearts of the people. 
What a warning against being guided by majorities 
in the things of God, or entrusting His cause to a 
human jury ! Has He not said, " Let God be true 
and every ma?i a liar !" 

Yet the Lord does not so leave His truth to be 
utterly deserted. He had His two witnesses even 
then. And who now ever cares to remember those 
other ten ? Their names are put on record, but are 
read unheeded — Caleb and Joshua are alone remem- 
bered and honored. Their nobility and their fidelity 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 



57 



make every kindred chord throughout our hearts to 
vibrate. Surely no other two than they could have 
borne upon their shoulders those grapes of Eshcol ! 
Bringing their good report they brought its proof 
also. The Lord be praised that He ever reserves 
such witnesses. In every age there have been those 
who not only spoke glorious things of the City of 
God, but showed in their lives the choicest fruits of 
the Spirit. True, men instead of tasting their grapes, 
try to stone them with stones. They are ready to 
fling their hard thoughts and hard speeches against 
them for a time, but in the end they trust them. 

But while such is the responsibility of the leaders 
of the people, there is another resting upon all. It 
is no real excuse to say as they did of old, " Our 
brethren have discouraged our heart," since our re- 
sponsibility is this : — " Yet in this thing ye did not 
believe the Lord your God." 

There are few Christians who appear to understand 
how fatal a sin is distrust. They are very apt to re- 
gard it as at worst an amiable weakness, while the 
real stamp of it is this : "He that believeth not God 
hath made Him a UarT* We try to disguise this 
doubting of God and His Word, by claiming that it 
is only doubt of ourselves ; that in our case, God's 
Word still remaining true, there are such very practi- 
cal difficulties that it can not be fulfilled ; forgetting 
that these promises of God were addressed to man as 

* i John v. 10. 
3* 



53 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

he is, in all the weakness and disadvantage of his 
fallen nature, and that nothing in our own constitu- 
tion or circumstances can be any hindrance to the 
mighty power of God. 

What if we should begin to discount human prom- 
ises as we do these Divine pledges ? We see at once 
that we could do no greater wrong to the friends who 
love us. Every doubting of God's Word is a distinct 
step towards atheism — for if we take away from our 
thought of God our confidence in His love, or power, 
or truthfulness, what is there left to receive the name 
of God ? Yet Christians who would be shocked be- 
yond measure at the thought of committing such sins 
as either theft or falsehood, commit with scarcely a 
thought of wrong, this great sin of making God a liar! 
And then as He lets it happen to them according to 
their fears, they are foolish enough to accept this as 
a confirmation that they were right in their judgment. 
And because He still keeps over them His fatherly 
care, they are presumptuous enough to think that 
there is nothing so greatly amiss in their present 
position. 

And thus there are those who will tell you that the 
Church of Christ was never more flourishing than 
now. They are ready to prove it by statistics of all 
sorts. Busy with their counting, they forget the ways 
of God, and see not the fingers that silently write 
amid their boasting, " Thou art weighed in the bal- 
ances, and art found wanting." The Laodicean sign 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. $g 

of entire satisfaction with themselves is fulfilled. 
They appeal to the wealth and solid worldly stand- 
ing of their organizations, and say complacently, 
" We are rich and increased with goods." Success 
is their idol, and spirituality is set at naught. Mean- 
time they seem blinded as to the final effect of such- 
a low state of Christian attainment upon the world, 
and forget how powerless to win souls is a Church that 
is not Christ-like ! 

But along with the classes thus indicated, there is 
a large and daily increasing number, who earnestly 
desire some better thing; who have never assumed 
for themselves any such position of unfaithfulness, 
but simply find themselves involved in the general 
shortcoming. They are bent upon wholly following 
the Lord their God, if only He will show them His 
way, and lead them out of their perplexities. For 
all such may the blessed lessons that follow in the 
Book of Joshua be as a message from the living God. 
May He send out His light and truth, and guide 
them, and bring them to this land of blessing. 

And now let some of these suggestions be still 
further enforced by a simple sequel to the fable that 
closed the preceding chapter. 

Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, is sitting at the 
hour of the evening sacrifice in his tent door. Lean- 
ing upon his staff, he is watching with dim eyes the 
smoke of the Altar as it rises against the westward 



Co THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

sky. Suddenly he is startled by a voice : " Art thou 
Nahshon the Prince of Judah?" 

And he answered, " I am he, but I can not behold 
thy face. Tell me whence thou comest, and where- 
fore." 

And the voice made answer, " I am Suli, from the 
land of Egypt. Dost thou not remember that eight 
and thirty years ago, I did eat bread in thy tent ? 
Suffer me again to salute thee." 

" Thou art welcome, O Suli, and it pleaseth me 
that thou hast turned thy feet hither once more 
while I am yet alive." 

" I thank thee for thy welcome, O Prince, but I 
can not say in truth that I also am pleased to find theti 
where thou art. Despise not my pity, but I remem- 
ber thy expectation of that ' good land and large/ as 
thou didst love to call it. Yet thou hast only shared 
the common doom of man. He is born to hope and 
disappointment. But thy sorrow, O Nahshon, is great, 
beyond that of most ! " 

" Nay, Suli, thou art mistaken. I do not need thy 
pity. Hast thou not heard how great a nation we 
are become ? When I was set over the house of 
Judah, they were but threescore and fourteen thou- 
sand and six hundred, and behold how greatly my 
own tribe has multiplied. See, also, how large are 
the camps of Issachar and Zebulun, who do pitch 
with me. Whereas those that are numbered in the 
camp of Ephraim are nearly fourscore thousand less. 



THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. (5 X 

My own tribe has always taken the lead in our march. 
All this rejoiceth my heart." 

" But I see not, O Nahshon, how this can comfort 
thee under the failure of which I spake." 

" Failure, didst thou say? Suli, thou art mistaken. 
I do assure thee we have had great success. Behold, 
now, our Tabernacle. When I made my first offer- 
ing therein, I gave one silver charger, the weight 
whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels. Like- 
wise a silver bowl of seventy shekels. I filled them, 
moreover, with fine flour and oil, and gave with them 
a golden spoon full of incense : and one and twenty 
sacrifices, for burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings, and 
peace-offerings. Likewise did all the Princes. When 
I had first made mine own offering, no man of them 
all offered less." 

" But thou art telling me of things that happened 
long since. I did hear of this offering of thine as I 
left thy tent before." 

" Let me tell thee, then, of our present prosperity. 
Didst thou behold as thou earnest the cattle of Reu- 
ben and of Gad upon the pastures of Bashan ? It is 
a land they say that excelleth for cattle, and their 
flocks and their herds have greatly multiplied." 

" Thou dost not, O Nahshon, understand my 
thought. I spake concerning men, and not of cat- 
tle." 

" Hast thou not, then, regarded the order of our 
camp ? Behold our men of war — how they are trained 



62 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

to great skill ! Behold the discipline that is observed 
through all the host ! " 

" I have observed all these things this day ; but 
still I can but judge that all this training is only to 
be accounted of as the means unto some end. I do 
not behold an end that is worthy of it. With all 
these men of war you have not been able to enter 
that land." 

" But hast thou considered, O Suli, what a train- 
ing this manner of life is for us ? Have we no need 
to be taught patient waiting and submission ? It is 
a part of our belief that our shortcomings work to- 
gether in the end for good. We are kept humble by 
this proving. Who knoweth how our heart might 
have been lifted up in pride had we dwelt upon the 
other side of Jordan ? " 

" How is it, O Nahshon, that in all this thou dost 
not speak of thy God ? Thou didst ever make men- 
tion of Him, and not of thyself * when I did enter 
thy tent before. Is He still the God whom thou 
dost worship ? " 

" The same, O Suli ! and He forgiveth us oft." 

" Thou art wise, O Nahshon, and thy people with 
thee, to make the best of this failure, but it seemeth 
to me that thou art not wise when thou sayest that 
all is well with thee. Suffer me to ask one question 
further of thee. If, when Moses came to call you, 
he had only given you the promise of your God to 
bring you out of Egypt, and had said nothing at all 






THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 



65 



of Canaan, but, furthermore, had told you plainly 
that you would spend forty years in the Desert, 
would you have followed him ? Thinkest thou he 
could have roused the nation without so great a 
promise ? " 

" Thou hast spoken rightly, and therein, as it seem- 
eth to me, was the wisdom of such a promise. We 
needed to set out with high hopes. There was time 
enough to learn afterwards to give them up, and to 
take the other blessings of which I spake." 

" How sayest thou, O Nahshon ! Is thy God then a 
Deceiver, who must deal falsely with you to draw you 
on ? Surely, thou didst tell me, eight and thirty 
years ago, that He had given you such a promise, 
and that He would without fail give you that Land." 

" I marvel, O Suli, that thou dost not understand 
this. The Land is ours. The promise is the same. 
None of us for a moment doubt it. In all our holy 
songs we still sing about it. We speak of it some- 
times to one another, that it is ours by right, for God 
hath given it to us. And, indeed, the only trouble 
is that while we know it to be our home, we have not 
yet reached it." 

" Nay, Nahshon, if this be thy philosophy, it is 
falsely so called ; for surely not to possess that which 
we have been promised, is worse than any poverty 
whatsoever. Thy words as thou speakest now, do 
contradict all whereof thou didst once assure me. 
One word thou spakest then — the saying of thy father 



64 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Abraham — hath ever been borne in mind by me as 
the sublimest speech mine ears have ever heard — 
1 What God hath promised He is able also to per- 
form ! ' Not until then had I ever heard of a God of 
real power, who had never failed to help His worship- 
ers. A strange whisper sounded through my soul, ' This 
is that unknown God for whom thou seekest ! ' Yet 
have I wandered on, over many lands, having resolved 
to spend my days in seeking after that which is true, 
and to make out what I might of this great riddle of 
life, and to learn of those mysterious beings, whom we 
see not, but who no less clearly seem to exist. And 
now I had come back to thy people as the people of 
the True and Living God. But from that which thou 
hast told me, I perceive that thou wast mistaken. 
Even He is not true ! All others, I am well per- 
suaded, are false ; and now I must die, despairing of 
ever knowing whether there be a God that has power 
upon earth or no. Thou mayest be satisfied for thy- 
self, but thou hast made the heart of thy servant 
sad." 

" Stay, stay, my friend ! Thou dost force me to 
confess that which I should have told thee at the first. 
Our God was faithful and true ; but we ourselves 
became disobedient, and refused to enter the land 
because of our fears. Therefore are all we who are 
men to die in the wilderness ; and our children are 
yet to possess it, if they be willing and obedient. 
Only a few remain among the living, and already, as 






THE FAILURE OF UNBELIEF. 



6$ 



thou seest, O Suli ! is my strength decaying before 
my time. So soon as the last of us hath departed, 
they will cross over Jordan and possess that land. I 
rejoice for the sake of my children, for far be it from 
them to live the life which I have lived. I can only 
trust that we may render this service to our God ; 
that all who follow will be warned by our example, 
what a fearful thing and bitter it is not to believe in 
the word of our God. Surely all generations to come 
will point the finger at us as they say, ' Take heed 
lest ye also come short after this example of unbe- 
lief.' I must die, but may thy life, O Suli ! be spared 
to see with thine own eyes what glorious things the 
Lord our God can do. And then, surely, thou wilt 
cast in thy lot with this people, and thou wilt say, 
' This God shall be my God for ever and ever. He 
is true and faithful altogether.' " 



CHAPTER III. 

CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 

" MOSES MY SERVANT IS DEAD. NOW, THERE- 
SA FORE, ARISE, GO OVER THIS JORDAN, THOU 
AND ALL THIS PEOPLE."— {Joshua i. 2). 

In the lessons which are drawn in Holy Scripture 

from various events, there seems little care to bring 
even the moral antecedents into unity with the one 
point which supplies the instruction. In reality, 
Moses was excluded from the promised land because 
he spake unadvisedly with his lips. But in accord 
with Christ's own manner of teaching,* we are at 
perfect liberty to draw a lesson from his removal to 
give place to Joshua, as though this cause had not 
existed. Unquestionably his death at this critical 
period, and the raising up of a new leader whose 
very name anticipated Jesus,f were designed to teach 

* See, for instance, the Parables of the Friend at Midnight, and 
the Unjust Judge. 

t " Instead of Hosea, t\ e., help, which he was already called 
as the delegate of his tribe, Moses named him, with little change 
of the sound, but with an important addition to the sense, Jeho & s- 
hua, *. e., God help."— Ewald. 

" Such a union of mildness with strength, of simplicity with 
(66) 



CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 



6 7 



us the separate spheres of Law and Grace — " The 
Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came 
by Jesus Christ." * 

As they could not possibly enter Canaan until Moses 
had died, so the Law is in one sense a hindrance. It 
can never introduce us into the fulness of the bless- 
ing of the Gospel of Christ. It must not only die, 
but be buried, and all the days of its mourning 
must be ended. It might be objected to such an 
application of these facts, that had the people en- 
tered Canaan from Kadesh-Barnea, Moses would in 
that case have been their leader. But the same ex- 
ception might be taken to many an inspired com- 
ment. The bare event itself, apart from cause or 
circumstances, is counted sufficient for " the analogy 
of faith." 

And this special lesson, though not drawn for us 
by any inspired writer, is in the fullest harmony with 
their teaching. The whole Epistle to the Galatians 
is an earnest adjustment of the relations of Law and 
Grace — Works and Faith — Moses and Christ. One 
of the most important sections of the Epistle to the 



prudence, of humility with magnanimity, has in it something 
evangelical. This peculiarity of his character, together with the 
peculiarity of the period in the kingdom of God in which he 
lived, and of the position which he took, makes him and his 
work a rich type of Him that was to come." — F. R. Fay : — 
Lange's Com. 

* John i. 17. 



6% THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Romans deals with the same subject, entering into 
some of its deepest difficulties. In both of these 
Epistles the truth that is taught has special reference, 
not to conversion, but to Christian life. It is, in fact, 
at some of the advancing stages of his course, that 
the disciple begins to find his need of such strong 
protests against the law. The usual tendency is to 
run well for a season, and then to be hindered. 
And while many other things may at first cause the 
failure of God's children to enter their glorious in- 
heritance, there can be no doubt that subsequently, 
by far the greatest hindrance is their legality. 

The moment that faith ceases to look unto Jesus, 
it loses all that heavenly vision that lies above the 
horizon ; and as the eye is still lowered, and the 
glance shortened, there is only self for it to rest 
upon ; — not always self in its indulgent forms, but 
self in its sufficiency; self even in its denials; self 
in all its solitary struggles. The history of many a 
Christian has for its chief data his so-called holy reso- 
lutions. 

So blinded are the victims of this legality that they 
never dream of such a snare being set for them. They 
find themselves convicted of failure. Stirred up by 
the power of the Spirit, the will is aroused from its 
carelessness, and returns to its loyalty to God. And 
then it begins to act in its own strength. It says to 
itself, "It shall no longer be thus; I will from this 
moment lead a better and nobler life ; I will put 



CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 



69 



forth all my efforts, and surely God will help me." 
And so this poor, humbled will regains its own self- 
respect. It begins to build up a reputation for itself 
It does not see that this is self-reliance and not 
Faith. 

Greatly to its astonishment it finds that it does not 
sustain this purpose. And now to its solemn resolu- 
tions it adds its vows. It will bind itself to God's 
will so that it can not break away. And lo ! the 
vow is vanity. Now it adds intenser effort — " I must 
wrestle — I must struggle — it can not be that I am to 
go down before the puny power of these petty pas- 
sions — that the things which I despise should yet 
master me." It is confounded when it finds that all 
these efforts only seem to call out the strength of its 
foe. Seeing that the battle is, indeed, desperate, it 
betakes itself more earnestly to prayer, but not to the 
prayer of simple trust. It is only a varied exercise 
of its own energy. It is only fulfilling one more of 
the many works which it is told it must perform. Its 
reliance is really more upon prayer than upon God. 
It is in utter consternation when it finds that even 
yet its help cometh not. What further can it do ? 
It catches a watchword, " Believe only !" Ah ! surely 
it has found the secret now ! and leaving all else it 
will do this alone. Yes, it will believe, and it puts 
forth its last tremendous energy in what it calls an 
act of trust, but still self-originated, self-centred. 

Thus every stepping-stone which God has furnished 



70 



THE FULNESS CF BLESSING. 



by which Faith may draw nigh to Him, Legality 
turns into a stone of stumbling. Its provided helps 
become its hindrances, and only by repeated defeat 
does it learn that the law is but a standard, and never 
strength. It brings with it no power to fulfil itself, 
and so becomes weak, indeed, through the flesh. 

To say that it finds no ability in man to keep it, 
would be to deny all moral responsibility. To some 
extent it finds man able to observe in it its letter. 
But as the Law becomes Spiritual, as its significance 
unfolds, as the Law given at Sinai is expounded on 
the Mount, as it claims the thoughts and intents of 
the heart, it finds the utmost strength of man unequal 
to it. However meeting some of its requirements, 
yet in others failing, he is with all his care a trans- 
gressor. 

And the wretchedness of this failure is that he does 
not do this evil thing of choice. To ivill the good 
is present with him, but how to perform it he finds 
not. It is another law warring within him, and bring- 
ing him into captivity. He is like the strong man 
upon whom insidious disease is creeping. His task 
is before him, and he applies himself without a mis- 
giving of failure. A strange languor drags him down. 
He is not doing it as he ought, and again he bestirs 
himself. And as he still fails, he goads himself on 
even with violence. But at last the law of disease 
assents its full might, and he falls powerless. Sin is a 
disease. It works through all our nature like a poi- 



CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 



71 



son. The claims of the law were adjusted to health ; 
and while under this disturbance there is the constant 
and inevitable failure to meet them all. The sick man 
must be healed before he can possibly fulfil the tasks 
of health. 

Or, it is as when the frosts of winter still hold in 
their death-like grasp the trees of the forest and the 
seeds in the bosom of the earth. A law of growth 
has been given them. But this other law utterly 
opposes it. You place the perfect seed in the soil, 
and you ask it to fulfil the law of its being. It can 
not, until the soft showers have touched it, until the 
quickening rays of the sun have reached it. This law 
of growth is dependent upon powers that are to reach 
it from above. By itself it is a prisoner forever. 

And so at last, man learns that the great law of his 
spiritual being is, that he shall live by Faith. He learns 
that his life is always derived, and always dependent. 
He learns that a power outside of himself, even the 
power of Christ, must be brought to bear steadily 
upon him, and so control him continually, if he ever 
fulfils his destiny. As he needed once a Justifier, so 
he always needs a Sanctifier. 

When he sees at last that the help must be a Liv- 
ing Helper, when he ceases to ask, " What shall I 
do ?" and cries instead, " Who shall deliver me ?" he 
is very near his only possible answer — " Jesus Christ 
our Lord." He wages an unequal warfare till the 
law of sin and death is met by " the law of the spirit 



72 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



of life in Christ Jesus." When this mighty Ally 
enters, the Usurper is mastered, and the soul is made 
free. 

Henceforth weak as ever in itself, it learns what it 
is to be " strengthened with might by the Spirit in 
the inner man." Such words as, " Christ liveth in 
me," are now no vague and mystic speech, but the 
simplest expression of absolute truth. The death of 
Moses marked a new epoch. But it marks a more 
wondrous epoch in the history of our souls when we 
give up the law as our Leader, and are given over 
fully to the power of Jesus. In some respects it is a 
critical change,* for we need thoroughly to under- 



* Olshausen's clear spiritual insight becomes especially power- 
ful in his treatment of this subject — as, for instance, in these few 
detached passages : "The lofty aim of man, the SiKaioavvrj Qeov, 
is to be obtained without law through faith in Christ. By the 
%o>pk vofiov, however, as is self-evident, it is not intended to ex- 
press a renunciation of the law, for the law is holy and good, 
and necessary for all phases of life, but to designate the altered 

position in which man stands to the law The condition 

in which man is thoroughly one with the law, even as our Lord 
tells us God Himself is, constitutes exactly that dinaLoavvr} Qeov, 
to which faith brings us, because through faith man receives the 
being of God into the depths of his soul." 

" That which is new in the Gospel does not consist in a more 
excellent system of morality, but in this, that the Gospel opens a 
new source of stre?igth, by means of which true morality is at- 
tainable." 

" The death of the faithful in the old man is connected with 
the death of the Redeemer, so that His death was their death, 
and did not merely prefigure it As little as the wife may 



CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 



n 



stand that thus we do " not make void the law," but 
ever " establish the law," till the righteousness of the 
law is fulfilled in us. 

Life is its own law. Lifeless things are fashioned 
from without. The Masterpiece of Architecture must 
be led slowly up — shaped with line and plummet, and 
squared and measured continually ; and meanwhile, 
a tiny seed shall, without line or measure, or the touch 
of a human hand upon it, or the outward application 
of any law, shape itself into the perfect grace and 
symmetry of a forest tree. How it mocks all art ! 
Art may copy its arching, interlacing boughs, Art 
may shape its lordly pillars also ; but how shall it 



wantonly separate from her husband, since his death is requisite 
for her liberation : so little may the " I " free itself from the law 
as long as the old man is living. If this is done, therefore, as is 
always the case where a mere seeming faith prevails, it is a 
spiritual adultery, the lust after false freedom, that is, licentious- 
ness, lawlessness. The liberation from the law rightly takes 
place only where the new man arose in the stead of the old, 
where, therefore, Christ is truly living in the man. There is no 
licentiousness, for Christ brings with Him the strictest law where- 
soever He works ; but the yoke of the law is removed by that 
love which is shed into the hearts. This love urges to do more 
than the law requires, and to fulfil every act with purer intention 
than the most threatening law can demand. For love is insa- 
tiable. She never satisfies herself and the Beloved ; she burns 
on till with her fire she glows through the whole heart and 
being, and has sacrificed her all to the Beloved. After this 
manner works the Gospel all in man without law, although it 
exacts nothing from him, but only promises, and gives to him." 
— Olshausen on the Romci7is {Clark's Edition), pp. 143-231. 
4 



74 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



ever carve out those countless leaves, and keep them 
moving lightly in their airy dance ! It is a thing of 
life. Its law was hidden in itself, and yet how true 
to law. The pattern once given by God to the parent 
stock is faithfully reproduced. Thousands of years 
ago God said, " Let the earth bring forth the fruit 
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in 
itself, and it was so." And it is still so. That which 
we watch with wonder is the continuous creation of 
God. 

And such is the manner of that inward law by 
which fallen man comes to be " renewed after the 
image of Him that created him." Born again of in- 
corruptible seed, it must develop in the likeness of 
that from which it is derived. " Whosoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth 
in him : and he can not sin, because he is born of 
God."* It is a strong statement, but it is held to 
truthfulness by all the analogy of nature. It is the 
glorious law of the Spirit of Life. Wherever Christ 
is allowed to come, He comes with creative power, 
both killing and making alive. He comes in to be 
Himself all in all. He comes into our being with 
His Edict, " Behold, I make all things new !" 

As a striking preparation for the removal of Moses, 
we find him in renewed authority. Deuteronomy is 
composed almost entirely of his words. There all 
God's dealings with His Chosen pass in solemn re- 

* I John iii. 9. 



CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 



75 



view. Then the Law is recapitulated, but with a 
significant change that may well be stamped in the 
title of the Book as a Second Law. It is given now 
not so much in threatening as in blessing. Richer 
promises cluster around it. It constantly anticipates 
the life of Israel in the Land of Promise. It is the 
Law less in its letter and more in its spirit ; as, for 
instance, in the sixth chapter, where all the com- 
mandments are headed up in one that so wonderfully 
anticipates the Gospel : " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all. thine heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy might."* The purpose of the Law 
stands out more clearly — "for thy good alwayT And 
at length the Law clothes itself with the soft tints of 
the morning, and almost shines with the same glory 
that shines in the face of Jesus Christ, as God is 
spoken of as having a delight in them to love them, 
and as rejoicing over them for good. 

And in this is prefigured the pathway by which the 
soul passes out into the fulness of Grace. A Deuter- 
onomy is as needful a preparation as Sinai. The Dis- 
ciple of the Law has not outgrown his tutelage till, 
from the mere use of rules, he passes to the deep 
principles that underlie them. The Law thus even 
revives in preparation for its passing, and with less 
of terror, and more of love, makes its claims to be 
more imperatively felt than ever. 

And now it is almost ready to depart ; and yet one 

* Deut. vi. 5. 



j6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

thing remains to be done. There has come through 
all this discipline, this leading on and on, the most 
intense desire to reach the goal. Shall it have no 
glimpse of all the grace it has been ministering unto ? 
Even so Moses entreated the Lord — " I pray thee let 
me go over and see the good land that is beyond 
Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." 

And so he stood upon the top of Pisgah, while the 
Lord, who stood beside him ready to give him burial, 
showed him all the land. The eye that was not dim 
received, doubtless, some new power as God bade him 
look — " This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, 
unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it un- 
to thy seed ; I have caused thee to see it with thine 
eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. "* 

Not then, and not until his Lord summoned him 
from that valley sepulchre which none else knew, to 
climb another mountain, and appear there with a fel- 
low-servant who had not tasted even death as he was 
taken up — both of them sharing now in their Lord's 
transfiguration ; talking not of that mystic burial, 
not of that mysterious chariot of fire, but of that 
decease yet to be accomplished at Jerusalem. When 
Christ is glorified, Law and Prophecy appear with 
Him in glory ; yet in such wise that their light is 
speedily absorbed in His, and the eyes that look see 
" JESUS ONLY," and the ears that hearken are bidden 
to " hear Him." 

* Deut. xxxiv. 4. 



CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 



77 



In the first command that reaches Joshua after the 
death of Moses, we find an expression full of mean- 
ing — " Thou and all this people." Throughout the 
Book we never find the Lord speaking directly to the 
nation ; but as the " Lord spake unto Joshua," so " he 
spake unto the people." It had been thus since they 
said unto Moses, " Speak thou with us and we will 
hear; but let not God speak with us lest we die."* 
But not only is Joshua the mediator between the Lord 
and Israel, in the same manner that Moses was, but 
we find now a new identification between the Leader 
and People : He is included with them and they with 
him. "Go thou over this Jordan;" — " Be thou 
strong and very courageous;" — "I have given into 
thine hand Jericho." In all these charges the people 
also are signified, but as represented in him. And 
so the Record is fitly called, not the Acts of the 
Israelites, but the Book of Joshua. One person is 
pre-eminent. 

The spiritual truth with which this is in harmony 
is of exceeding importance. Our Gospel is the Gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ, not of any truth or blessing apart 
from Him. Standing as the Mediator between God 
and Man, not only has He entered into heaven for 
us, but also in every step of His pathway He took 
us with Him, saying evermore to His Father, " Behold 
I and the children whom thou hast given Me !" f 

And He did this not ideally, but in a sense as true 
* Ex. xx. 19. t Heb. ii. 13. 



78 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

as it is deep. That which was true of the parent 
tree, is true of its branches. We do not assign one 
age to its trunk and another to its twigs. We speak 
of it as a unit. This same continuity of life belongs 
to mankind. Thus St. Paul speaks of Levi paying 
tithes in Abraham. So, also, he says, " I HAVE BEEN 
crucified with Christ." So he reasons that if " One 
died for all, therefore all died." So he teaches us to 
reckon our rising into newness of life from His 
resurrection — " Ye were also raised again WITH 
Hint."* 

To Jesus was given the glorious work of conquer- 
ing a possession for all His people. As the Prince 
of Faith, He passed through death to life, and took 
and held for us the heavenly heights of all spiritual 
blessing. Putting Himself as one of us, and speak- 
ing as the Head of the whole Body, He declared, 
" For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also 
might be sanctified through the truth. "f 

So, then, the work of sanctification is primarily to 
be regarded as that which Jesus has already done, not 
as that which we have yet to do. The completion 

* " If Christ took our nature upon Him by an act of love, it 
was not that of one, but of all. He was not one man only 
among men, but in Him all humanity was gathered up. And 
thus now, as at all time, mankind are, so to speak, organic- 
ally united with Him. His acts are in a true sense our acts, so 
far as we realize the union ; His death is our death, His resurrec- 
tion our resurrection." — Westcotfs Gospel of the Resurrection. 

t John xvii. 19. 



CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP. 



79 



of it is simply this, that we apprehend that ior which 
we were apprehended by Jesus Christ. 

Thus, in Christ, Christian experience is no longer 
problematical. It is only the corollary of faith fol- 
lowing from the truth which He has demonstrated. 

The intellectual apprehension of this truth, how- 
ever easy to some, appears to be extremely difficult 
to others. Yet its spiritual apprehension makes it 
simple to all. Let it once be clearly recognized by 
faith, and we stand forthwith upon new ground. No 
longer on the shifting sands of our narrow selfhood, 
we tread the Rock of Ages in all its breadth and 
strength. 

It happens with this truth more often, perhaps, 
than with others, that we think ourselves perfectly 
familiar with it, while knowing very little of it. In 
its real revelation to our souls there can be no mis- 
taking it. It is no longer a theory at which we look, 
but a Power that, like the living Creature in the 
wheels, lifts us up and bears us ever onward. 

" Thou, and all this people." — " Christ first, after- 
wards they that are Christ's." And so our career is 
already certified, being only this, to follow Him whith- 
ersoever He goeth. God's promise links togethei 
the Leader and his followers when He declares, 
" Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread 
upon, that have I given unto you."* The feet of 
Jesus have outstripped our feet ; but every place 

* Josh. i. 3. 



g THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

whereon His blessed feet have rested, is already con- 
quered, and is ours as well as His. Life, death, things 
present, things to come, all are ours, for we are Christ's. 
Far above us, up the heights we slowly climb, we see 
His standard set already. " We see not yet all things 
put under us, but we see JESUS crowned with glory 
and honor." Since He is seated there, our place is 
there — at Sion, not at Sinai. 

We set at naught all this work of Christ, when we 
go back to Moses, and with him exceedingly fear and 
quake before the terrible sight, and the trumpet of 
the Law. How has our Captain charged us, — " See 
that ye refuse not Him that now speaketh from 
Heaven." See that ye believe His truth and grace. 
See that ye trust Him, and let the exceeding fear 
give place to the exceeding joy of ever looking unto 
Jesus, the Prince and Perfecter of Faith. 






CHAPTER IV. 

THE BOUNDARY LINE. 

Ur pHE GOOD LAND THAT IS BEYOND JORDAN." 
1 — (Dent. iii. 25). 
The crossing of Jordan was to be the great initia- 
tive of the Conquest. All the events of their future 
were focalized at this point, and, therefore, thither 
their eyes were always directed. " When ye be come 
over Jordan," was the fitting introduction of many a 
precept. The wisdom of God is very apparent in 
leading His people out of Egypt by the way of the 
Red Sea, appointing that as the memorable boundary 
of the land of bondage, and there " baptizing them 
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." It is the 
counterpart of this act to give them now a like bap- 
tism in Jordan — committing them, by another marked 
display of His power, to the leadership of Joshua, 
and bringing them in with an arm outstretched as 
wide as when He brought them out. The two cross- 
ings stand thus coupled in the second Psalm of the 
Hallel, as similar displays of the presence and power 
of God — " What ailed thee, O thou Sea, that thou 
fleddest, thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back !" * 

* Ps. cxiv. 5. 

4* (81) 



82 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Elsewhere, we find an omission of the crossing of 
Jordan as significant as this special mention of it. 
In that sublime chapter in Hebrews, where the heroes 
of the kingdom pass along their triumphal way of 
Faith, there is a sudden hiatus of forty years, leaving 
two remote events in conjunction : " By faith they 
passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which 
the Egyptians assaying to do, were drowned. By 
faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were 
compassed about seven days."* Up to this point 
each important step had been noted ; but the Apostle 
would not turn aside to trace the by-ways of unbe- 
lief; no, not even to glance at that step of faith 
which ended them. The record with this silence 
restores the true order of experience. Had there 
been no wandering, there would have been no Jor- 
dan to cross. 

In harmony with this we find that the Epistles 
which describe so fully the doctrines of Christ, never 
teach that any second marked experience is needful 
to follow conversion save this — after they had be- 
lieved, to be " sealed with that holy Spirit of promise," 
which was the earnest of their inheritance.f The 
route which they marked out for every traveller ran 
direct to Kadesh-Barnea. Besides this, such was the 
faith of the early disciples, that they could be usually 
addressed as those who were already in heavenly 
places, although very far, in some instances, from 

* Heb. xi. 29, 30. t Eph. i. 13, 14. 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 



83 



having conquered all their enemies, and from possess- 
ing all the land. The counsel adapted to them is 
precisely that which we need, as we come to take the 
same stand of faith. But until then we need another 
lesson. Thus, in the case of giving counsel to a for- 
eigner already landed on our shore, we would say 
nothing about the sea. Whereas, were he on the other 
side, we would speak first of the most pressing point 
— how to cross. Such crossing over is unquestionably 
the great need of the majority of Christians ; not to 
make some slight change in their course, but to get 
upon new ground. 

And yet there may for many be other needs, lying 
back of this. Some may have accomplished their 
Exodus who have not learned Leviticus ; — who have 
not come to worship God in spirit and in truth. 
Others, again, have never passed through Numbers 
— have never declared their pedigree and claimed 
their adoption. Others who have come thus far 
have stopped short of Deuteronomy. Having drawn 
back in unbelief and lost their vantage ground, they 
have never been roused to have the law revived in 
their hearts, and pressing its claims upon them with 
all the more force, for all that they have learned of 
the goodness of God. Some, indeed, there seem to 
be, who have even forgotten that there is a Land of 
Promise before them. They have neither climbed a 
Pisgah for themselves, nor believed the report that 
has been brought by others. 



84 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Doubtless much of the failure of those who think 
for a time that they have found the desired blessing, 
only to learn their mistake, is the result of neglecting 
this preliminary teaching. Their need is deeper than 
is apprehended by themselves or others. It is in vain 
to think of crossing over Jordan, until God has pre- 
pared us to conquer and to hold the land ; and how 
can this be done, unless we know assuredly that He 
is ours and that we are His? Happily, these ante- 
cedent steps, while all important to be taken, may 
be rapidly taken ; and still more happily, a large 
number of Christians are prepared to take them as 
soon as they are clearly pointed out. These are 
steps of comparative ease ; but the step which now 
more specially claims our attention, is one that no 
human foot can take by itself. God Himself must 
make the pathway here ; and when it is made, His 
wonderful work will be coupled forever, in our 
thoughts and in our songs, with His first great work 
for us : " The Sea saw it and fled ! Jordan was 
driven back ! " 

What then does Jordan signify? and what more 
does it teach us than was signified in the Red Sea 
crossing? St. Paul has taught us that the fathers 
were " baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the 
sea." * It was a shadow of that substance concerning 
which he writes— " Buried with Him in baptism, 
wherein also ye are risen with Him." The Lamb 

* i Cor. x. 2. 



THE BO UNBAR Y LINE. g 5 

with its sprinkled blood had set forth one all-impor- 
tant aspect of salvation — that of Atonement ; while 
the Red Sea crossing was needed to set forth another 
no less important — Regeneration. With this — their 
baptism — the old life ended and the new life began. 
That crossing corresponded to conversion or the New 
Birth, of which Baptism now in its form and spirit is 
both the symbol and the seal. 

The Red Sea and Jordan alike signify Baptism, in 
its double meaning of Death and Resurrection. Yet 
they differ in this, that the Red Sea gives prominence 
to the Death, and Jordan to the Resurrection. The 
one marked the end of bondage — the other the en- 
trance upon true freedom. Strictly speaking, the two 
events have but one Antitype — the Death and Resur- 
rection of Jesus. Objectively they are one. But sub- 
jectively, in our own death and resurrection with 
Christ, the two events give each experience its fitting 
emphasis. As one crossing took Israel out of Egypt, 
and the other into Canaan — so with us, one separates 
us from the world, the other leads into Heavenly 
places. Again, this further distinction appears : at 
the Red Sea they were baptized unto Moses ; that 
is, unto fellowship with him in that faith by which 
he had forsaken Egypt, and unto following him. At 
Jordan they were committed to Joshua — precisely as 
we follow the Law-giver, while it is the death of 
Christ that is mainly recognized, and then when we 
see more clearly the Risen Lord, we follow the Life- 



86 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

giver. The great lesson of Jordan is the power of 
Christ's Resurrection* to separate us not only from 
Egypt, but from all wilderness wanderings, and to 
secure for us an entrance into Heavenly places, f 

The significance of Jordan may appear more clear 
from a glance at its hallowed associations. The Scrip- 
tures often use mere locality as the link of spiritual 
truths. A singular instance appears in the words, 
" Out of Egypt have I called my Son," as applied to 
the sojourn of the infant Jesus in that land — the 



* " Arise, sad heart, if thou dost not withstand, 
Christ's resurrection, thine may be : 
Do not by hanging down break from the hand, 
Which, as it riseth, raiseth thee : 
Arise, arise ; 
And with His burial-linen dry thine eyes." 

— George Herbert. 

t " It is obvious to every thoughtful Christian, that a strong 
link of connection exists between the crossing of the Red Sea 
and of Jordan. It is found in the death and resurrection of the 
Lord Jesus ; but there are two effects sensibly different and of 
real importance, that we should distinguish. 

" Regarded in the type of the Red Sea, it is simply setting us 
apart to God from the world, making us pilgrims while we are 
passing through it ; crossing the Jordan, or the death and resur- 
rection of Christ, in this point of view does far more. It is the 
power of that mighty work as bringing us into the possession 
of our heavenly blessings before we go there. We are made 
consciously of Heaven ; we have still to fight before the time is 
come to rest. In both cases it is not that merely is Christ dead 
and risen, but this applied to us by the Spirit." — Lectures Intro- 
ductory to the Historical Books, by W. Kelly, p. 4. 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 87 

utter unlikeness of the outward events forcing us to 
seek for some more subtle accord. 

Around the name of Jordan we find a group of 
events which are in close alliance as to their inward 
character. Jacob passed twice over Jordan — once as 
the lonely pilgrim with his staff, and again returning 
with his two bands. It was over Jordan that David 
fled in the darkness of the night from Absalom ; and 
to its banks he returned to be brought over it again 
in state, as king of the very hearts of his people. 
When Elijah was to be taken from Elisha, the two 
stood by Jordan till Elijah with his mantle smote the 
waters, and they went over on dry ground; and again, 
Elisha returned thither with a double portion of his 
master's spirit upon him, and himself smote the 
waters, and passed safely through, as his first miracle. 
In these instances, the first crossing is in poverty — 
in defeat — in sorrow ; and the second, is in wealth — 
in restoration — in triumph. 

Again, this very crossing of Jordan by the Israel- 
ites has another event as its companion. When Jacob 
was carried back into Canaan to be buried, they went, 
it is expressly noted, beyond Jordan to the threshing- 
floor of Atad, lying between the river and Jericho.* 
" There they mourned with a great and very sore 
lamentation." The head of their nation was gone. 
In the cave of Machpelah reposed the bones of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that sepulchre was their 

* Gen. 1. 10. 



88 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

sole possession in the land promised to each. The 
nation turned back bereft to Egypt, not to come over 
Jordan again, till multiplied beyond measure, they 
went into Canaan as their home. National death 
and national resurrection are signified in these two 
crossings. 

Again, during the baptism of John, Jordan was the 
significant stream selected. There they " confessed 
their sins." They virtually declared themselves dead 
in those sins by submitting to a rite known hitherto 
only to aliens, in their acceptance of Judaism. Jesus 
could not possibly join in this confession of sin, even 
while by a like baptism he identified himself with the 
sinner. Instead of this, there was a confession of His 
righteousness from the opened heavens — " This is My 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."* Both 
of these meanings are accordingly preserved in Chris- 
tian baptism — death of self unto sin, and resurrection 
in Christ unto righteousness. 

Yet again, in these two crossings of the Red Sea 
and Jordan, we may find the coupling of the offices 
of Christ and His Spirit. The first gives no faint 
foreshadowing of the power of His death and His 
most precious blood. The second has significance in 
its very name, "The Descender" or "flowing down." 
The power of the Risen Lord was manifested chiefly 
in the descent of the Holy Spirit. It was the out- 
pouring of this gift that made the marvellous change 

* Matt. iii. 17. 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 89 

in the Disciples of Jesus, and it is still a distinct ex- 
perience from that of believing in the Lord Jesus for 
the forgiveness of sins ; as is clearly taught, for ex- 
ample, in the question, " Have ye received the Holy 
Ghost since ye believed?"* and again, in this state- 
ment, " As yet He was fallen upon none of them ; only 
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." f 
The close connection of the two appears in the charge, 
" Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and 
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." \ 

Jordan signifies to us this baptism of the Holy 
Spirit, or the power of Christ's resurrection ; since 
upon this and His subsequent glorification, the giv- 
ing of the Spirit depended. This Baptism of the 
Spirit means far more than being born of the Spirit. 
The birth of Jesus identified Him with our human 
nature ; His baptism in Jordan identified him still 
further with our human lot of sin and suffering. So 
does our birth of the Spirit make us partakers of His 
divine nature, while the Baptism of the Spirit makes 
us sharers of His righteousness, His joy, His power. 
It is not merely life that is bestowed, but life more 
abundantly. 

To attain fully to all that this resurrection implies, 
is the life-work of each child of God — the " working 
out " of his salvation. As the Resurrection of Jesus 
ended in His glorification, so ours goes on to the 

* Acts xix. 2. f Acts viii. 16. % Acts. ii. 38. 



9 o 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



same goal. It can not be completed till we reach 
" the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ ;*[ 
until we reach this with our entire being, even this 
body of ours becoming like unto His glorious body.* 
Therefore, the full appropriation of what Christ has 
wrought for us must be a continuous work, and the 
Baptism of the Spirit must be a life-long baptism, 
coming not only once, like the early rain, but in 
many a soft shower, and in silent successive dews of 
night. 



* "This tendency to ignore the importance of the body, proceeds 
from a general lack of insight into the Scriptural philosophy of 
nature and of spirit. Those who do so are entirely wanting in 
any profound apprehension of the process of salvation, by which, 
according to Scripture, God is carrying on the world toward its 
consummation. This process must extend to the corporeal world 
as well as to the spiritual. For the victory of divine love over 
all the powers of sin and death would not be complete, if the body 
of man were not once to be released from the bonds of death, 
and raised into that glorious condition for which God has orig- 
inally destined it. Like all other terrestrial bodies, it is intended 
one day to be entirely penetrated by the spirit — to be translated 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God, and thus to be 
transformed in light inwardly and outwardly (Rom. viii. 21-23 ; 
Phil. iii. 21 ; 2 Cor. iv. 10, etc.) And how otherwise could this 
world-renewing process be begun, than by the resurrection and 
transformation of that one Body over which death had no power 
— the sinless body of Christ, the second Adam, in whom all are 
to be made alive ? (1 Cor. xv. 22, et se.) In His resurrection " the 
consummation of the world is anticipated." As in the nether 
world Christ broke the bonds of spiritual death, so in His resur- 
rection He destroyed the organic power of death in the earthly 
creation, and impregnated it (as an organism ; hence the dead 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 



91 



Thus we have the paradox of a work that is fin- 
ished, and yet only begun — of Christ having "per- 
fected us for ever," and yet we ourselves " going on 
unto perfection/' 

St. Paul has given us, in most admirable terms, 
this distinction between God's side and man's side. 
In his Epistle to the Philippians, he glances first at 
this power of Christ's resurrection and the hope it 
holds out to him. In all humility he declares that 
he has not attained, that he is not already perfected ; 



bodies of the saints appear in Matt, xxvii. 52 and 53) with new 
and divine vital forces ; just as in the heart the life-blood is pre- 
pared afresh, and from it flows forth into all the limbs. The resur- 
rection-power coming from Christ, through the medium of His 
Word and sacraments, tends mainly to the sanctification and 
renewing of the sinner (Rom. v. 10 ; Eph. ii. 5, 6 ; 1 Pet. i. 3), 
and thus interpenetrates, first, the spiritual nature of man, plant- 
ing within those who are regenerate a germ for the resurrection 
of the body (Rom. viii. 11). Then the spiritual life of Christ 
breaks forth in a manifestation in the visible world, by revivify- 
ing the bodies of those who are sanctified (in the first resurrec- 
tion. 1 Cor. xv. 23 ; John v. 25-29 ; Rev. xx. 5, 6). In the suc- 
ceeding general resurrection — an act of Christ's power which 
extends to the whole of the corporeal world, and introduces the 
great mundane catastrophe (Rev. xx. 1 1— 13) — as well as in the 
formation of a new heaven and a new earth, this grand and 
gradually progressive progress of the world's renewal has its fit- 
ting consummation. It is God's will that His glory should dwell 
in His whole creation, that He may be all in all (1 Cor. xv. 28 ; 
Rev. xxi. 3, et se.) In this respect we must indorse the sentiment 
of Oetinger, that " corporeity is the end of God's ways." — Mod- 
ern Doubt and Christian Belief, by Theodore Christlieb, D.D., 
pp. 451, 452. 



9 2 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



but he presses on to " apprehend'" that for which he 
was " apprehended " of Christ. It was because of the 
fixity of the mighty work of Christ, and the support 
it gave to faith, that all his energies were roused to 
obtain the full benefit of it. Because he is appre- 
hended, he will henceforth apprehend. 

Yet is the first apprehension, the first entrance 
upon this risen life, the all-important point, and that 
which Jordan represents. You plant, for example, a 
little vine. You know its possibilities and provide 
for them. You place close to its root the trellis upon 
which it is to climb, without which it could only creep 
upon the ground. In the placing of that trellis with- 
in its reach, with full provision for all future growth, 
the vine may be said to be apprehended. But the 
chief difficulty is found in the first attachment to its 
support. When the vine has fairly clasped it and 
begun to wind its tendrils about it, it has begun to 
apprehend. Its career is before it, but the crisis is 
that beginning. 

It was an immense advantage in leaving Egypt, to 
know it by the sharpest of all boundary lines. Had 
the boundary been a valley, a hill, a rock, the fact 
would have been known ; but how slight would have 
been the impression thus made upon the mind ! But, 
being what it was, passing first through the walled 
waters, and watching then the waves that over- 
whelmed their enemies, an entire revolution in all 
their thoughts and purposes would naturally follow. 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 



93 



That Sea was both a boundary and a barrier. They 
stood upon new ground with another life before them. 
And no less was the advantage of a distinct bound- 
ary and barrier between the wilderness and Canaan. 
There a host more formidable than all Pharaoh's 
horses and chariots were swallowed up — even their 
fcars and unbelief — and as once their hearts thrilled 
with the cry, " Out of Egypt !" so would they thrill 
again at the blessed certainty, " over this Jordan !" 

In how many human events is our interest concen- 
trated upon some one act that clearly and openly 
signifies many beside itself. How much meaning in 
that one moment when the crown is set upon the 
brow of a Monarch ! Does He not seem from that 
time more truly to reign ? How much it means when 
the hand is set in solemn signature, in the presence 
of witnesses, to that Title-deed which gives a Home- 
stead or forfeits it ! How much it means beyond all 
that has already been — the marriage-day — the spoken 
vow — the ring upon the hand ! Those now wedded 
hearts were pledged long ago. They give themselves 
to each other at this moment not more fully than then. 
But God and man alike ordain that such an event 
should be signalized, that there should be somewhat 
to mark it for the eye and ear of others. What emo- 
tions stir the soul even of a spectator in such a scene ! 
By all these tokens it becomes a reality that is recog- 
nized. 

And so in countless things the new future demands 



94 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



its turning point. Did not Caesar feel it when he 
crossed his Rubicon ? Was not every man in that 
army stronger for that act ? Jordan is the Christian's 
Rubicon ; and is it not well when the Lord calls to 
us with a voice of command so distinct as this. 
u Arise, and go over this Jordan ! " And were these 
glorious privileges in Christ Jesus pointed out long 
and lovingly — were they spoken of line upon line, 
till dull hearts caught the meaning, what an arising 
would there be through all the slumbering hosts 
of Christendom ! 

We have on record the lives o( not a few noble 
men and women who, years after their conversion, 
heard this new call to arise and go further on. They 
passed through a distinct spiritual crisis, and stood 
henceforth o\\ new ground. They were full o( the 
Holy Spirit. Here and there through that region oi 
Christian biography resounding with secret moans oi 
" Wo is me ! *' we find those who have walked almost 
like Enoch, in wondrous fellowship with God. And 
yet in their own statements oi truth there is often a 
vagueness. The silver trumpet does not give a cer- 
tain sound. They had not really come unto all 
riches oi "the full assurance of understanding;* 1 and 
so. while in their own experience they had far out- 
stripped their comrades, they knew not how to give 
the clew to others to follow them, .is they had fol- 
lowed Christ. Their teaching lacked that great essen- 
tial oi definiteness. 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 



95 



There are always to be found, however, those 
whom indefiniteness suits. The vague teaching 
shelters their want of full devotion to God. They 
carefully avoid a crisis. They arc not whole-hearted 
enough to be decided. They do not want to face 
the question, Do I from this day follow the Lord 
fully ? Am I ready to be made conformable unto 
His death, that I may know the power of His resur- 
rection ? Am I willing that God's Holy Spirit should 
baptize my whole being — spirit, soul, and body, so 
sanctifying me, and keeping me blameless unto the 
coming of the Lord ? Such questions search the 
heart down to its hidden thoughts and intents. It 
requires the truest faith to die with Jesus, and to live 
only in Him. But such thoughts can only irritate 
those whose policy it is to evade conviction of their 
true state. And even where it only results in hesi- 
tation, yet what terrible quicksands of unbelief even 
this discloses. No, they do not care to give over the 
whole being to God ! They desire to keep to them- 
selves the control and choice of many little things, 
for God might not always care for their pleasure, nor 
secure the interests they most prize ! 

Poor soul ! that art weighed in such a balance 
and found wanting, look yet again that thou mayest 
sec. The first step out of every difficulty is the re- 
moval of oii7' misapprehensions of God. Listen to the 
voice that pleads with thee, and even through the 
Law declares of every dealing with thee — " for thy 



g6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

good always** He loveth thee ! He delighteth in 
thee ! Look and listen till thou canst trust Him 
fully, and lay thy all before Him ! 

But how many are there of quite another class — ■ 
souls earnest and eager to be taught of God — who 
have been hindered by the erroneous teaching of the 
very truth they need ! Important as it is to put a 
clear boundary line between our failure and our faith 
and to cross over this Jordan, yet it is a most serious 
mistake to overload this experience with a stress it 
can not bear. Very plainly, in the case of the Israel- 
ites, to cross the Jordan was not to conquer all their 
enemies in the act. It was to prepare them for vic- 
tory ; it was to pledge it to them ; and yet it could 
only be the earnest of their inheritance. Nor was it 
in the fullest sense possession, since, as has been said, 
it was only the soles of their feet that could secure 
that. The land was theirs by promise before. It 
was theirs now by the first putting in of an actual 
claim. Hereafter it should be more fully theirs as 
they advanced and conquered and held it. 

This subject will claim a fuller handling when we 
reach the long warfare that followed their entrance ; 
but here let it be simply premised that the system 
which teaches that entire sanctification is an instan- 
taneous work, has the feeblest possible support from 
Scripture, either as to the doctrine or the phraseol- 
ogy. Experimentally, the results of such teaching, 
however flattering for a time, are finally most disas- 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 



97 



trous. The poor soul, once beguiled into self-decep- 
tion and the assertion of claims which can not be 
soberly sustained, is either pushed on the one hand 
up the heights of presumption, or else is driven back 
on the other to drop into the depths of despair. No 
close observer can doubt that such has been the gene- 
ral tendency of this teaching, while happy exceptions 
may be seen, where there has been such a private ad- 
justment of its terms as virtually to change the doc- 
trine. Beside this, the love of God really shed abroad 
in the heart, has a wonderful power to render error 
innocuous. But taking the system in its legitimate 
results, there can be little doubt that eventual loss is 
sustained by its supporters. The testimony which it 
encourages has a singular tendency to recur to past 
experiences, or if touching upon the present state, 
to claim little .more than the conservation of former 
blessings. Meanwhile, the importance attached to 
such testimony repels those who, like an apostle, de- 
sire to know not the speech of them that are puffed 
up, but the power I 

It seems the more needful in all Christian charity 
to allude to these errors, from the fact that, with few 
exceptions, this has been the prevalent mode in 
which the doctrine of Holiness or Sanctification has 
been presented as a specialty. At the same time 
such a monopoly of the subject has been claimed, as 
to insist that it was the only correct mode — so chal- 
lenging the assent of those who could heartily sym- 
5 



gg THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

pathize with its object. The unhappy result in the 
case of many who recoil from these assumptions in 
doctrine, linked with such inconsistencies in life, is 
that they do so, as though released from all further 
inquiry upon the subject. They begin to waste their 
strength upon controversy, and are more eager to 
point out the logical inaccuracy of the system, than 
to find a true remedy for their own shortcomings. 
It is a dark day for those who begin finally to justify 
themselves for the beam in their own eye, because 
they have found a mote in the eye of a brother. 
When the great beam of an unconsecrated life is 
taken from their own eyes, it may be that God will 
give them the grace, not to point out, but to pluck out, 
the mote of misapprehension from their brother's eye. 

As for the many thousands who desire to follow 
the Lord fully, whether among the satisfied sustainers 
of such a system, or those who are perplexed and 
hindered by it, or those who, ignorant of this, yet 
know right well the need of their lives— as for the 
multitude thus seeking after God, may He make His 
own Word a lamp unto their feet and a light unto 
their path. 

Any failure which exists in the lives of such, pass- 
ing by all secondary causes, has its real origin in 
unbelief. Like Israel of old, losing sight of God to 
see only self and the giant enemies, the one pressing 
need is to have the eye refixed on Christ in a true 
apprehension of Him as our Risen Lord— a work 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. gg 

which only the Spirit of God can accomplish for us. 
A right relation to Christ must precede our growing 
up into Him in all things. Happy that moment when 
the eye sees Him ! 

And how often is it the work of a moment at last. 
The sunrise may have been long heralded by steady 
increase of light, and yet it is in a flash that you see 
the golden orb itself. And when once the eye long 
occupied with self, whether in seeking its pleasure or 
proving its weakness, is lifted at last to see Jesus as 
the Prince and Perfecter of Faith — when it sees that 
it is Christ that it wants, and that this Christ is wait- 
ing for us, having all power in heaven and earth, it 
has had its vision — it has had its call, " Arise, and go 
over Jordan !" Seeing Christ arise, and give thyself 
fully to Him, to receive His fulness, and henceforth 
go on to apprehend that for which thou art now 
apprehended. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE TRIPLE PREPARATION. 
I. — COURAGE. 

"f)e strong and of a good courage; be not 
jd afraid, neither be thou dismayed : for 
the Lord thy God is with thee whitherso- 
ever THOU GOEST." — {Josh. i. 9). 

The first element of success in this vast undertak- 
ing of obtaining the Land of Promise was Courage. 
Hitherto the people had not set their heart aright, 
and fearing had failed. A new attitude of heart must, 
therefore, be assumed. The Hebrew words which are 
so often repeated fix very clearly the special character 
of this courage, " Be strong and firm' '* This mean- 
ing is brought out very distinctly in our own version of 
the words of Isaiah, " Strengthen ye the weak hands, 



* Joshua i. 6, 2)35$T PtH' " Verbum pf j-j proprie notat vires 

quae sunt in manibus ad prehendendum retinendum que viriliter ; 
sicut contra ^Yy^ firmitudinem, quae in genibus est, ad con- 
sistendum, ne ab alio quis evertatur.'' — Michaelis. 

" Joshua must lay hold boldly and with a strong hand, and 
then when he has done so, allow nothing to drive him from his 
position." — Lange's Com. 
(100) 



THE TRIPLE PREPARATION. IO i 

and confirm the feeble kneesT * To be strong signifies 
that the hands were fitted to take sure hold of the 
land ; to be firm, that the feet should be so planted 
that they could not be dislodged. Again, this mean- 
ing appears very literally in the charge addressed to 
the saints in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " Wherefore 
lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble 
knees ; and make straight paths for your feet." f 

But how is it that such courage is commanded? 
And being commanded, who can possibly create it in 
his heart ? The command was based upon an assur- 
ance — " I will be with thee ; I will not fail thee nor 
forsake thee. Be strong and firm." % This strength 
was to come, therefore, from believing in the presence 
and power of God. The courage was to be the cour- 
age of Faith. The fear which had been so disastrous 
to them was the result of looking away from God, 
and forgetting Him ; and so the courage could only 
result from again looking unto Him, and ever remem- 
bering Him. The revelation of a personal, present, 
and all-powerful God, is given as the basis of their 
faith and its consequent courage. 

Further, it was to be sustained by meditation upon 
the Word of God ; as we find in close connection the 
charge, " This book of the law shall not depart out 
of thy mouth ; but thou shalt meditate therein day 
and night." Deep and quiet thought which revolves 
day by day the thoughts of God, feeds the strength 

* Is. xxxv. 3. f Heb. xii. 12, 13. \ Josh. i. 5, 6. 



102 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

of faith. We are assured in the first Psalm, that to 
"■delight in the law of the Lord," and to "meditate 
in it day and night," is the secret of constant growth 
and fruitfulness. For faith comes by hearing, and 
hearing by the Word of God. And so it is the "word 
of faith"" which is presented. Apart from some such 
revelation of God there could be no faith. Along 
with that word proceeding out of the mouth of God, 
there ever flows a vital effluence of the Spirit, by 
which the soul that receives it is enlightened and 
strengthened. And so believing, it also obeys. It 
" observes to do " according to this revelation of the 
mind of God. And so brought into harmony with 
Him, it prospers and has good success. 

And thus there comes at last a holy confidence in 
God, that seeing Him always, cannot be afraid — as 
when in this brief charge to Joshua, we find for the 
third time the words, " Be strong, be firm ;" it is 
added, " For the Lord thy God is with thee whither- 
soever thou goest." No minute direction, no specific 
precept whatever, could at all compare in importance 
with this fundamental charge. Nothing must distract 
the servant of God in the clear reception of this one 
grand truth : God is with thee ; therefore be strong, 
be firm. Take hold of His promises, and keep that 
hold. 

It was thus that the Lord Jesus provided for the 
faith and courage of His disciples in the great work 
He gave them in the world : " Lo I am with you all 



THE TRIPLE PREPARATION. IC >3 

the days, even unto the end of the world." " Fear 
not," is the gracious charge He is ever giving as He 
more and more reveals Himself.* 

And what need is there still of this charge ! The 
experience of ages has not taken away our weakness ; 
and the fears and the waverings of many a Christian — 
the weak hands and feeble knees — are even now piti- 
able to consider. Until this element is eliminated, 
Christian heroism is an impossibility, as is, indeed, 
anything noble in character or service. Nothing so 
demoralizes the forces of the soul as fear. But if we 
answer the question of our Lord, "Why are ye so 

* Stier upon Acts xviii. 9, thus sums up the occasions of its 
use : " Fear not but speak, and keep not silence ! Still coming" 
first the same word of encouraging grace — so needful to us poor 
children of men — which runs through the whole of Scripture 
from beginning to end, Fear not ! Simon Peter heard it from 
the lips of the Lord Jesus when his call to be a fisher of men was 
repeated, Luke v. 10; Abraham received it first in the Old Testa- 
ment, Gen. xv. 1, — after a victor} - , too, like St. Paul here; for 
father Adam first of all confessed in behalf of us all — I was 
afraid ! The Lord and His angels often say it in the Old Testa- 
ment. The New begins with it to Zacharias, Mary, Joseph, the 
Shepherds. The Lord often utters it during His earthly life, 
down to John xiv. 1 : the angels at the sepulchre of the risen 
Jesus give it new strength. The ascended and glorified Re- 
deemer inspires vigor into the soul of St. John at Patmos by the 
same word, Fear not I Rev. i. 17. How needful is this word to 
His Disciples everywhere and in all ages ; and how ready He 
ever is to utter it to them ! 

" It is the abiding word of the Divine majesty and mercy for 
human poverty, weakness, and guilt." — The Words of the Rise?i 
Saviour, by Rudolf Stier, p. 72. 



io4 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



fearful ?" we can give no reason save the absence of 
that faith that is ever looking unto Jesus. Nothing 
fosters fear like solitude ; and nothing is more quick 
to catch contagion from evil converse. Only as we 
recognize the presence of the Lord, does fear give 
place to faith — a faith that is communicated by Him. 
The child that in the hour of danger has been always 
by his father's side, and has never seen him flinch, 
receives his courage from him. As we dwell con- 
sciously in the presence of God, as our thought is 
ever of His Love and Power, our souls, despite all 
their natural fears, will uprise in their strength. We 
can say calmly in the midst of darkness and tumult, 
" The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom shall 
I fear ? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom 
shall I be afraid?" 

Such simple, childlike faith in God has made more 
heroic souls upon this earth than the stoic could ever 
dream. Not through the long training of the iron 
nerve, but by the trusting glance at the risen Lord, 
have the tender woman and the timid child been 
strong and firm, in the midst of peril and of terrible 
torture. They " endured as seeing Him who is invisi- 
ble." Would that all could be persuaded that it is not 
a question of nature, but of grace ; not of temperament, 
but of trust. What an instance of this is found in the 
lives of these three men — Peter, Nicodemus, and 
Joseph of Arimathea. Studying the natural charac- 
teristics of Peter, any of us would have trusted his 



THE TRIPLE PREPARATION 



10$ 



courage before its failure ; and by all their antecedents 
we would look for anything but heroic discipleship 
from the other two. We see Peter ever ready to do and 
dare ; Nicodemus stealing stealthily by night to Jesus ; 
Joseph full of fear of the Jews. So stand the three 
by nature. But look at them again, when Grace has 
outstripped nature. Peter, lying and cursing for fear 
of a maid-servant ; Joseph, going boldly to Pilate to 
beg the body of Jesus ; and Nicodemus, in the full 
daylight, staggering beneath his hundred pounds of 
spices, to the tomb of the Teacher, sent from God — 
these two out of weakness made strong, even as the 
other shall be, when he has learned his own weakness. 

Timid soldier of Christ, called to pass over this 
Jordan and possess the good land and large — listen 
to the first charge of all, u Be strong ! be firm !" 
And to win this holy courage, look unto Jesus. Never 
look downward to thy fear — never around to thy foes 
— look solely unto Jesus ! 

And looking thus, meditate also upon His law, re- 
membering that this holy law is now a gospel, and 
that we are to observe to do according to all that is 
written therein — not only according to all its precepts, 
but also according to all its promises, all its privi- 
leges. 

If ever your hands grow weak, and your knees 

feeble, it is because you see too little ; because, like 

Elisha's servant, you see only the hosts and chariots 

of the enemy close around. Therefore you ask, " Alas ! 

5* 



io 6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

how shall we do ?" The Lord open your eyes, that 
you may look further, and see the mountains beyond, 
full of the hosts of God encamping round about you ! 

It was to Joshua, that this charge to be firm and 
strong was given primarily. His own exhibition of 
these qualities was to inspire the people. The Lord 
Jesus was the living embodiment of this holy cour- 
age. We see Him strong to endure the cross, firm 
to despise the shame. We see Him taking the straight 
path toward that joy which was set before Him, and 
we know that He will not fail nor be discouraged till 
He has set judgment in the earth. As we watch 
Him thus — Prince and Perfecter of Faith — how our 
weak hands grow strong and our feeble knees firm. 

This thrice repeated charge to Joshua had been 
already given thrice before. We find it in the last 
words of Moses, addressed first to the people at 
large, and then twice in the sight of all Israel to 
Joshua, so that six times in all, the chosen Leader 
heard the words of God — " Be strong, be firm." We 
also need their repetition. Not all at once are such 
qualities established in the soul. How often the 
Lord finds us, like Daniel, with no strength in us. 
He lifts us first, from that utter prostration to our 
knees. Again, at His words of command and cheer 
we stand trembling. But He does not leave us until 
once more, with all the similitude and sympathy of 
one of the sons of men, he touches us, saying, " O 
greatly beloved, fear not ; be strong, yea, be strong !" 



THE TRIPLE PREPARATION. 



107 



And when He has so spoken unto us we are strength- 
ened ; for " our God hath commanded our strength" 

How exquisite the tenderness that breathes through 
these commands of Jesus : " Son, take courage !" 
" Daughter, take courage !" " Take courage, doubt- 
ing disciples, It is I/"* Thus, by His own presence 
and power, He inspires us with that which we shall 
need all our life long — a high resolve, an undaunted 
spirit, an intrepid bravery — and coupled with these, 
steadiness, constancy, and endurance. By all our 
growth in the knowledge of Christ will these heroic 
virtues be sure to grow. " Be," then, " of good cour- 
age, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that 
hope in the Lord." 

II.— CONSECRATION. 

The second element of success is thus indicated : 
" Joshua said unto the people, ' SANCTIFY YOUR- 
SELVES, FOR TO-MORROW THE LORD WILL DO WON- 
DERS AMONG YOU.' " Elsewhere in similar commands, 
we find acts of purification and abstinence enjoined. 
The word itself means simply bodily purity ; and as 
washing was the preparation for each religious serv- 
ice, the term came to signify to set apart ; and as so 
used, is rendered in our Bibles " to consecrate," or 
" sanctify ; " so that the charge now given to the people 
was virtually this, " Set yourselves apart to God" — 
Yield yourselves to Him— Put yourselves in that 

* Cf. Matt. ix. 2, Matt. ix. 22 and Matt. xiv. 27. 



I0 8 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

attitude in which He can with perfect readiness take 
you up. — Draw nigh unto God, for He is drawing 
nigh unto you. 

The context of this command, which gives such 
prominence to the wonders which God will do, is a 
happy correction of a very common notion respect- 
ing consecration, as though it were some great giving 
to God by us, some surrender or sacrifice of what we 
previously held ; in fact, a sort of favor conferred 
upon Him, whereas it is only the readiness to receive 
from Him. Consecration is not a meritorious work 
of our own, but a willingness to let the Lord work 
His wonders upon us. It simply means a ready re- 
cipiency. 

Yet even this recipiency may involve surrender in 
a subordinate way, as it evidently did in the case of 
the Israelites. They could not possibly receive Ca- 
naan, without giving up the wilderness. That com- 
mand, therefore, " Sanctify yourselves," was a call to 
heart-searching. It pressed home to all their thoughts 
this recognition, " We are the Lord's." It could not 
long remain a matter of doubt with any, whether 
they stood ready for God to lead them over Jordan 
or not. The command given them was completely 
overshadowed by the promise that followed, and yet 
it was the Promise itself that tested and tried the 
very intents of their hearts. 

It continues to be a part of the manifold wisdom 
of God to furnish such tests, even in providing our 



THE TRIPLE PRE PAR A TIOX. 



IO9 



richest blessings. He who becomes a man must put 
away his childish things. The lingering child-nature 
struggles and shrinks from the sacrifice, but the spirit 
of the strong man uprising, spares not the old treas- 
ures as he reaches on to the new. God can not fill 
our hands with His great and good gifts till we drop 
the baubles they have held. And so in every on- 
ward step, calling us to some surrender, to some sac- 
rifice, He clears away the superficial wrappings of our 
nature to learn what soundness exists beneath. Je- 
sus Himself is even to be a sign spoken against, that 
so the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. 
How often, when on earth, did He disclose to them- 
selves, the true nature of many a half-hearted follower, 
by some sharp requisition ; or, in the same manner, 
call out the deepest faith of those w r ho left all and 
followed Him ! We may well thank Him for every- 
thing in the discipline of life, or in the secret conflicts 
of our own hearts, that gives us this knowledge of our- 
selves, and brings us to the solemn decision whom 
we will choose. 

The time which is fixed for the blessing of God, 
follows close upon the preparation — " Sanctify your- 
selves, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders among 
you." It is always thus. It is we ourselves who set 
the times in which our God shall bless us ; for what- 
ever day it be in all our life, that we take for our con- 
secration to Him, He will take the morrow for His 
wonders. There is no real delay with God, beyond 



I IO THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

that which we occasion. There may be seeming de- 
lay, for often He works in secret, and mysteriously ; 
but He always works, and that wondrously, so soon 
as we are set apart to Him — even as from the first 
day that Daniel set his heart to understand, and to 
chasten himself, the Lord Himself came forth to 
answer him. 

Yet precisely here, what misapprehension is there 
of His ways ! Men fancy that they are all ready — 
even eager for blessing — and they marvel why God 
delays. He does not delay. If we have, indeed, 
consecrated ourselves, He has already begun His 
work ; not where we, perhaps, desired it, nor in a 
way we looked for, but in the surest way. When the 
great Builder declares His work begun, we look at 
once for the imposing structure — and what if we see 
only an excavation ! By seeming delay, then, as 
well as by tests of service and of sacrifice, He 
searches our hearts, and reveals our thoughts to 
ourselves, as He already beholds them. And if still 
we see not the wonders which were promised us, 
shall we not at least hear a voice saying, "Art thou, 
then, truly consecrated ? Art thou ready for God to 
work ? Is there nowhere any holding back ? Is 
there no sparing of self? — no secret stipulation? — 
no subtle ambition? — no love of reputation? — no 
unhallowed affection ?" And He who so searches us 
will hold us waiting, until we are ready to look and 



THE TRIPLE PREPARATION. Iir 

see as He sees, and are really willing to give up our 
all to God. 

Such is the position, doubtless, of not a few who 
are even perplexed by their failure to go further. 
They are earnest souls even, that have pressed on 
beyond their comrades ; souls that have gone far 
enough to see what there is for them over this Jor- 
dan. They are servants of the Master, and they 
have wrought in His field unweariedly. But they 
long for richer results. They want these ideal pos- 
sibilities of the Gospel realized. They desire to see 
one of the days of the Son of Man — to exult in some 
new Pentecost. But no morrow with its wonders 
dawns for them. And standing thus upon the very 
verge of blessing, they ask, as they suppose, in all 
sincerity, " What doth hinder me ?" — and as they see 
nothing lacking in their consecration, they are dis- 
posed to be faithless as to God's fulfilment of His 
promise. Alas ! for the long, weary waiting of those 
who thus begin to question God's ways, instead of 
their own hearts ! He will surely be silent unto 
them, until they heed what He has already spoken — ■ 
" Sanctify yourselves — set yourselves apart ^ 

They who are thus turned back from marvelling 
over the mysterious delays of God, to suspect rather 
their own sincerity, will soon learn that consecration 
implies no hollow, hasty work. They become aware 
that only Faith can do it — that even as the only true 



1 12 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

courage was the courage of Faith, so the only true 
consecration is the consecration of Faith. Even this 
is to be one of the works of God — " Thy people shall 
be willing in the day of Thy power." No more mis- 
taken counsel can be given to a soul which is con- 
scious that it is not wholly consecrated, than that so 
often heard — ' This is your part of the work. Your 
will must put forth all its power, and solemnly re- 
solve that it will dedicate itself to God.' He who 
has learned the extent of his infirmity will answer, 
' You bid me do the most difficult task of all myself. 
Precisely here is my perplexity — that I can not feel 
sure that my whole will is honest in this surrender, 
and that I draw nigh with a true heart. My very de- 
sire to do it may still be selfish ; and that disinclina- 
tion which I discover, being a part of my will, holds 
me helpless. I find that I have neither full knowl- 
edge of myself, nor full mastery of myself. It is my 
will itself that is perverse, and treacherous, and un- 
stable ; and how can it possibly furnish the power 
that shall force it into rectitude ? ' * 



* The searching and sententious lines of Herbert's " Hold- 
fast," will naturally recur to the reader : 

u I threatened to observe the strict decree 

Of my dear God with all my power and might : 
But I was told by one, it could not be ; 

Yet I might trust in God to be my light. 
Then will I trust, said I, in Him alone. 

Nay, even to trust in Him, was also His : 
We must confess that nothing is our own. 

Then I confess that He my succour is. 



THE TRIPLE PREPARA TION. 



"3 



Consecration, be it repeated, therefore, can only be 
the work of Faith. As Faith first encouraged itself 
in the Lord by looking unto Him, so now Faith 
yields to this mighty attraction which draws the 
soul to God. His sovereign will alone can restore 
to unity and simplicity, the complexity and strife of 
our being. The kingdom of the heart has been the 
prey of each new Usurper. Only the Spirit of God 
can put them all down, and set us up as kings unto 
Him. Swayed hither and thither by both human 
and supernatural influences, there can be no stability 
till Faith elects the Spirit of God as the Sole Pos- 
sessor. 

Ask, then, ye who are seeking to consecrate your- 
selves to Christ — ask for His fuller revelation. " Look, 
ye blind, that ye may see." — He looketh upon you. 
Listen, ye deaf, that ye may hear, for to you He 
speaketh. Look and listen until your Faith grows 
into Love, until you see in Him, One who is worthy 
of all confidence, and the powerful attractions of 
whose nature so tell upon your yielding soul, that 
you can not possibly hold back anything, or allow 
the least reserve between yourself and Him, because 
" The love of Christ constraineth you.'* No forced 
surrender can possibly meet the claim of God upon 

But to have naught is ours, not to confess 
That we have naught. I stood amazed at this, 

Much troubled, till I heard a friend express 
That all things were more ours by being His. 

What Adam had, and forfeited for all, 

Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall." 



114 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



you. It is the citadel of the Will itself that must be 
yielded, even to its last reluctance. It is the love and 
loyalty of your inmost souls, that Jesus calls for, and 
they are never self-commanded. As you fully believe, 
you will fully love. As you fully love, you will fully 
give yourselves to God. Thus only can you be conse- 
crated to Him. Love has no will save this, " I de- 
light to do Thy will." Love makes all labor light ; 
love makes all sacrifices sweet ; love sees the crown 
over every cross ; love has no fear ; love never stipu- 
lates ; love never needs to test itself by future possi- 
bilities ; and love, when Christ Himself tests it, can 
straightway answer, " Yea, Lord, thou knowest all 
things, Thou knowest that I love Thee !" 

III. — COMMITTAL. 

We come now to that preparation which, through 
the power of God, passes over into performance itself. 
The heart being full of courage because of its faith, 
and full of devotion because of its love, must now 
take the step of a full committal to His ways ; and 
this also must be the work of Faith. 

When the Lord led His people through the Red 
Sea, His winds had been long blowing over it, and 
they saw a path prepared for them. They saw 
also the outstretched rod of Moses that seemed to 
pledge the safety of their passage. So that though 
it was " by faith," that " they passed through the 
Red Sea as by dry land," yet it could not be said 



THE TRIPLE PREPARA TION. 



115 



"they walked by faith, and not by sight." Rather, 
they walked by a faith, that had sight for its helper. 

But now the demand upon their faith was absolute. 
No sign or token was given. No outstretched rod 
was seen, and they heard the roarings of no winds. 
They saw no moving of the waters. They had no' 
outward security. They had only a simple promise 
of their God. In truth, all outward sight seemed to 
contradict that promise. Jordan was overflowing all 
its banks, giving the stream a double breadth. But 
not even this was to be changed, till faith had ven- 
tured upon the word of their God. " It shall come 
to pass," was the promise, " as soon as the soles of 
the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the Lord, 
the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of 
Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off 
from the waters that come down from above ; and 
they shall stand upon an heap."* The first step 
was to be taken in the waters. They were called 
upon not only to face the difficulties, but to enter 
them. They were not to ask God to prove His power 
first. They were to trust Him first, and then should 
they see as they followed on to know the Lord, " His 
giving forth " to be " prepared as the morning." 
There does not appear to have been a moment's 
hesitation on the part of the priests. 

The record follows almost in the very words of the 

* Josh. iii. 13. 



1 16 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

promise, " And it came to pass when the people re- 
moved from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the 
priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the 
people ; and as they that bare the ark were come 
unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare 
the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for 
Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of 
harvest,) that the waters which came down from 
above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from 
the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan ; and those 
that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the 
salt sea failed, and were cut off : and the people 
passed over right against Jericho."* 

How fatal had been a halt, although but one step 
short of the brim of the waters. Even the foot up- 

* Joshua iii. 14-16. " On the broken edge of the river — so the 
scene which follows is placed before us by the narrative — the 
band of priests stood with the Ark upon their shoulders. At a 
distance of nearly a mile in the rear stood the great mass of the 
army. Suddenly the full bed of the Jordan was direct before 
them. High up the river — 'very far' — 'in Adam, the city 
which is beside Zaretan ' — that is, at a distance of nearly thirty 
miles from the place of the Israelite encampment, ' the waters 
which came down from above,' from the Sea of Galilee, stood, 
and rose up in a barrier ; and ' those that came down towards 
the sea of the Desert, the salt sea failed, and were cut off.' The 
scene presented to us, therefore, is of the river-bed dried up 
from north to south, as far as the eye could reach — an image 
which, however it may be explained, is important to bear in 
mind, to avoid a confused notion which is often formed from a 
supposed parallel with the account of the Red Sea." — Dean 
Stanley s Sinai and Palestine, p. 298. 



THE TRIPLE PREPARA TION. 



117 



lifted, ready to fall as soon as the path was ready, 
would have waited in vain. The promise was ad- 
dressed only to the faith that, without seeing signs 
and wonders, could yet believe. That one step taken 
which proved their faith, and placed it in a position 
of entire receptivity — then God could prove His faith- 
fulness and manifest His power. His wonders follow 
at once. 

The lesson which is here taught us is of the utmost 
importance, showing us the very essence of all true 
faith. Mature faith must be able to dare and to en- 
dure, with no other stay than seeing Him who is 
invisible. Our Father does, indeed, stretch out* the 
hand of yearning tenderness to steady the tottering 
steps of a babe. In His pity and compassion He 
will not forbid the poor cripple his staff; but the 
faith of full years and of steady strength, can never 
be developed by continued indulgence. It must be 
exercised by reason of use. And so God leads His 
children out at last beyond all visible stays and 
props, or even stepping-stones, where hearing only 
His voice, " Go forward " — 

" Nothing before, and nothing behind, 
The steps of Faith 
Fall on the seeming void, and find 
The rock beneath." 

Again, that God instead of giving His people some 
visible aid for their crossing, set before them a most 



H8 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

visible hindrance, doubling the danger and difficulty 
to the natural eye, is in perfect accord with our ad- 
vanced experience. Only how often does the sim- 
plicity of our faith fail to equal theirs. It would 
have been a most natural thing for an Israelite to 
say, rising up that morning and looking wistfully 
over Jordan, "We can not possibly cross to-day. 
This can not be the time, for it is high flood. Surely 
the Lord will have us wait awhile until the waters 
abate." It would have been natural, even for such 
doubts to become a denial of God's word, as the 
suggestion followed — ' The days for such wonders are 
past. There were evident reasons why Jehovah should 
lead our fathers through the Red Sea, and inaugurate 
our national life with a miracle. But the necessity 
has past. Forty years have gone by since the time 
of those mighty signs and wonders. Is it not pre- 
sumptuous to look for the repetition of such a mira- 
cle ? Let us use our own judgment and strength as 
best we may. When Jordan has fallen again, we can 
either find its fords, or bridge it at some favorable 
point/ But happily we have no such record. They 
had learned at last the dangers of doubt, and the 
blessedness of believing God. 

But what of our own record? In the face of prom- 
ises as distinct as were given to them, are not many 
of us found questioning the result ? It is the first 
instinctive impulse of unbelief to seek a sign — to 
have something to interpose between itself and the 



THE TRIPLE PREPARA T10.V. 



II 9 



bare word of God. And so, how often is the ques- 
tion asked : ' If God be really disposed to bring me 
into this glorious liberty, will there not be at least 
some token of it ? Shall I find no evidence of it in 
my own altered feelings ; and especially will not the 
Lord prepare the way by lowering the opposing tide 
of temptation ? ' The Word of our God needs neither 
sign nor surety. Be it a promise, or be it a command, 
it matters not ; for every command has a promise for 
its kernel. We are to go forward to obey His com- 
mands — forward to receive His promises — forward in 
faith — forward though difficulties double. Not from 
the withdrawal of these is our strength to come, but 
from Him who has said, " My grace is sufficient for 
thee ; my strength is made perfect in weakness." 

Yet, in the face of this assurance, the complaint is 
heard on all sides, ' I am at this present time exposed 
to unusual pressure — Outward circumstances combine 
against me. Within, temptations and weakness meet, 
and my peculiar temperament is tried by all that can 
trouble it most. Is it not too much to expect deliv- 
erance ? After all, these wonders of grace must have 
been meant for apostles. At least, they belong to 
the early ages. It certainly does not please God to 
work so in our own day, unless it be with some very 
extraordinary people. Why should I be so presumptu- 
ous as to expect it ? Should I not even dishoner the 
Lord in attempting to claim such special promises, 
when I am well-nigh certain to fail, and draw back in 



I2 o THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

confusion and shame? Surely, the Lord never in- 
tended me to obey any such command, or receive 
any such great promise. I stand, therefore, ex- 
cused.' 

The Word of God allows not a particle of license to 
any such quibbling. To whom of all mankind has 
God not said, " Be holy?" Whom does He release 
from that law of blessing that girds His universe? 
If we can find a soul excepted from His commands, 
that soul must also be excepted from His promises. 
But how significant it is that while our faith is not 
energetic enough to accept the promises of God, we 
are not consistent enough to really loose our con- 
sciences from the commands, but secretly hope some- 
time to find a way, under favoring circumstances, to do 
that which we can not quite believe that God is able, 
at any time, to do for us. 

In truth, we are accustomed to discount the prom- 
ises of God, in a way that would utterly dishonor any 
fellow-being. Whenever we place full confidence in 
a friend, a solemn assurance, though it be but a word, 
is decisive. But if we thus receive the witness of men 
to their own ability to aid us, how shall we not receive 
also that witness of God which is so much greater — 
greater because He is not only full of truth in pur- 
posing, but also never forgets His promise, and can 
never be thwarted in its performance. Our confi 
dence can not be misplaced as it .rests upon His 
promises, seeing that the slightest of them is built 



THE TRIPLE PREPARATJOX. \2\ 

four square upon these strong foundations — His 
Righteousness, His Truth, His Love, His Power. 

This, then, is the foot dipped in the brimming 
waters — when we have heard the Lord calling us to 
follow Him, " To walk worthy of Him unto all pleas- 
ing," to have " spirit, soul, and body, preserved blame- 
less unto His coming," to let " the God of Peace 
sanctify us wholly ;" — when we have heard this call, 
to take then His promise, "Faithful is He that call- 
cth you who also will do it" and to go on, though 
confronted by temptation, and encompassed with 
weakness ; to go on, as though these were not — so 
stepping out of self and its limitations, into Christ, and 
all His boundless possibilities ; and finding that it is no 
longer we, that live, that walk, but Christ, who even 
as He has promised, dwells in us, and walks in us. 

Again, the foot dipped in the brimming waters 
declares emphatically that faith is to precede feeling. 
Incalculable mischief has crept into Christian expe- 
rience through the neglect of this simple truth. A 
religion that rests upon feeling, for either its security 
or comfort, will find itself tottering and trembling to 
the end. Yet so common and so great has been the 
loss sustained in this way, that, having recognized it, 
we are now not a little in danger of an extreme reac- 
tion. There are some who, at least, seem to teach that 
faith is not only to precede feeling, but to supersede 
it. Our feelings, they say, are not at all to be regarded. 
At no stage can their evidence be taken. This is 



122 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

plainly unscriptural. Very crude indeed must be the 
conception of truth, where a soul in the midst of un- 
satisfactory and unsanctified feelings, settles the whole 
matter, by regarding itself complete in Christ through 
faith alone, and so allows its evil frames and feel- 
ings to go on unchecked. 

Nothing that we discover in heart or life, need hin- 
der us in coming to Christ to seek deliverance from 
it. We may even use our worst discoveries as our 
plea in coming ; " For the whole have no need of a 
Physician, but they that are sick." Nor will my sick- 
ness make the Physician displeased with me in my 
first application to him. Yet, if he has given me all 
that should restore me, and my own wilfulness or 
carelessness still keep me in the same feeble condi- 
tion, he will be greatly displeased with me. Now, 
my feelings are not the real seat of the disease, and 
yet there we find our surest symptoms as a rule. I 
can not possibly be in health with such disordered 
feelings. I ignore them at my peril. And so as I 
come to Christ — feeling no glow of love, no peace 
that passeth understanding, no joy unspeakable — I 
am not to regard these as reasons for not coming to 
Him, or as hindrances. This very trouble gives me a 
right to come. I can appeal now to the compassion 
of my Healer — "Lord, I am well-nigh sick unto 
death." But if after He has healed me, and taught 
me the conditions of sustaining health, I find my- 
self again unloving, cold, perturbed, fretted, moody, I 



THE TRIPLE PREPARA TION. 



123 



have not the least right to say that all is well, 
and that disregarding all this, I am to believe myself 
fully accepted through Christ. Unless I bring this 
disturbance to Him for confession, forgiveness, and 
healing, I am utterly at fault. 

Our feelings are of importance. The same Creator 
who set the faithful nerves as sentinels along all the 
lines of the senses, to give due warning of danger and 
disease, gave a corresponding sensitiveness to our 
souls. Faith is not to discharge this as unnecessary, 
but to retain it in her service. If it be well with our 
faith, it will also be well with our feelings. If we 
have the Spirit of Christ, then the fruits of the Spirit 
will be ours also ; and many of these fruits are pre- 
cisely what we are accustomed to class loosely under 
the head of feelings. They are such as love, joy, 
peace. They are not the root, but they are the fruit ; 
they furnish finally the test, not of God's power, but 
of our reception of that power. 

The Apostle John repeatedly appeals to such tests 
as these respecting our adoption, and growth in grace. 
The words so often used by him — " Hereby we 
know " — most certainly teach us that while looking 
unto Jesus, we are to see also, that both in outward 
acts and inward states, we are becoming like Jesus. 
Having faith first, we shall have all holy frames, and 
heavenly feelings. 

And now let us take one more glance over this 
triple preparation of courage, and consecration, and 



124 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



committal. Each of these represents a practical 
truth. Each is a step in harmony with the will of 
God. Each is necessary to the development of effect- 
ual faith. And yet such are the simplicity and the 
speed of Faith, that the three will seem as but one 
step, and in action will need no such analysis. 

No one will ever pass over into the fulness of blessing 
who fails to set his feet in these old way-marks. It 
is impossible, without the courageous faith that can 
say, " My heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." It is 
impossible unless we can say, " Lord, I am thine, en- 
tirely thine." And how can it ever be more than a 
beautiful ideal to those who can not say, ' I am so tak- 
ing the promises of God as to act upon them. 1 am 
following along their track, fully persuaded that God 
Himself will perform all that He has promised. I 
count His promises my open pathway. I venture 
upon them, and know that it shall come to pass 
according to His word. I commit my whole being 
to Him in well doing. He will remove every obsta- 
cle from my path. He will guide me. He will endue 
me with power from on high. I dip my feet in this 
Jordan. I die to all confidence in myself. I rise to all 
completeness in Jesus. Life in myself, has been a 
failure. Life in the Spirit of God, is my hope of 
triumph now. I pass beyond the bounds of human 
power, and risen in Christ, I set no bounds to 
that which He will do for me — exceeding abundantly 
above all I ask or think. I believe in Jesus, and 



THE TRIPLE PREPARA TION. 



125 



therefore I shall see the glory of God. I trust Him, 
and I see Him at once arrest the whole, resistless, 
swollen tide, holding the waves of terror and tempta- 
tion, cut offeven very far away, so that I fear no evil.' 
With the Courage of Faith, the Consecration 
of Faith, and the Committal of Faith, " we who 

HAVE BELIEVED DO ENTER INTO REST." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

ii AND Joshua said unto the children of 
^ Israel, Come hither, and hear the 
words of the lord your god. and joshua 
said, Hereby ye shall know that the liv- 
ing God is among you, and that he will 
without fail drive out from before you 
the canaanites, and the hlttites, and the 
hlvites, and the perizzites, and the glr- 
gashites, and the amorites, and the jebus- 
ites. Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of 
the Lord of all the earth passeth over 
before you into Jordan." — (Josk. ill. 9-11.) 

This it was that was to stay the waters — u THE 
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all 
THE EARTH." Not till all the people had passed 
over, was the Ark of the Lord to pass over. The 
priests who bore it stood firm on dry ground, in the 
midst of Jordan, till all had passed. 

The Ark here assumed its proper prominence. 
Hitherto a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of 
(126) 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. 127 

fire by night, hovering over the Tabernacle, had 
guided them. Now the Ark itself was to go visi- 
bly before them, as the immediate symbol of the 
Living God, and the pledge of His presence and 
power in their midst. It was the most sacred por- 
tion, by far, of the hallowed structure. More fully 
than all else it represented Christ. Especially was it 
adapted to suggest His Person, and Presence, and to 
show forth His work, as living, as dying, and as alive 
forevermore. 

In common with those other portions of the Tab- 
ernacle which represented Christ, the Ark was made 
of shittim-wood, and overlaid with gold. For every- 
where the same blessed lesson is repeated — the union 
of the human and the Divine — the very man and 
very God. And yet it is the human nature that is 
overlaid and glorified by the Divine — taken into it 
and shielded by it, and so preserved and ennobled. 

The Ark held also, in security, the Tables of the 
Law. This was, indeed, the office for which it w T as 
appointed ; and nothing could so establish the high 
nature of Law, and so prove its essence to be the 
very mind of God, as to assign it a home in the 
most sacred spot of all, as the very regalia of His 
realm. 

This same Law, as at first given, was broken by the 
people, before Moses could reach them with the writ- 
ten Tables in his hand — his own breaking of the Stones 
only representing their breaking of the Covenant it- 



128 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING, 

self. The second set of Tables was not entrusted to 
the hands of men, but was placed at once in the 
Ark, which was prepared before he went up into 
the mount.* Thus, till Christ came, every man who 
touched the Law broke it ; and though it were the 
least of the Commandments, yet was he " guilty of 
all." That is to say, it mattered not through which 
line of the Law the fracture ran, or whether its frag- 
ments were small or large, broken anywhere it ceased 
to be a whole. It was dishonored throughout. But 
Jesus came and fulfilled all righteousness. He so hid 
the Law in His heart, that there was never the slight- 
est fracture of either Tablet — never a sin against God 
or against man. In Christ first, was exhibited that 
new Covenant, in which the Law should be put into 
the mind, and written in the heart. It was so writ- 
ten in the mind of Christ, that He had perfect knowl- 
edge of the Law (an aspect of obedience often greatly 
overlooked), and it was so put into His heart, that He 
had perfect love of it. He came, saying, " I delight 
to do thy will, my God ! " This was His life-work 
through all its phases of waiting, and working, and 
suffering. 

But the Mercy-seat rested upon, and covered the 
Ark. Mercy could find a basis where the Law was 
fully kept. Mercy and Truth there met together. 
He who was first the antitype of the Ark, in fulfiil- 

* Deut. x. 1-5. 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. 



129 



ing the Law in His life, became then the antitype 
of the Mercy-seat as set forth in His death for a pro- 
pitiation* for sins. He honored the Law by His own 
keeping of it, and then, as the far greater task, hon- 
ored it by atoning for the sins of those who had 
broken it. The great truth taught by the Mercy- 
seat, is exhibited in the sprinkling of the Blood upon 
it, on the great day of Atonement. 

But still a further task remained — to provide for the 
keeping of this Law, by those who were forgiven their 
iniquities ; and this glorious truth is exhibited in the 
two Cherubic figures, which formed the completion 
and crown of the Mercy-seat. " Beaten out of the 
matter of the mercy-seat" as a part of it, their signifi- 
cation must be kindred with its own. They plainly 
represent some provision of the great salvation from 
sin. In form and posture, they present as clearly as 
possible, the idea of living and reigning. Now the 
living, reigning Jesus has still this other work to do 
in honoring the Law, to enable His people to keep it y 
by writing it also in their minds and hearts. In this 
great orifice the Holy Spirit is His Co-worker. So 
we behold the upper portion of the Mercy-seat as- 
sume the form of two Cherubim, with outspread 
wings, and faces toward the Mercy-seat. Between 
them God dwelt. Thence He shone forth. And 
while we should tread softly amid such sanctities as 

* (Rom. iii. 25) IXaorfipiov ; i. e., Mercy-Seat. Compare Heb. 
ix. 5. 

6* 



130 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



these, of which even an Apostle did not see fit to 
'speak particularly/' one can not but feel that any 
interpretation falls short, which fails to recognize the 
manifestation of Divine Natures — not in similitudes, 
but in symbols. They were a part of the Mercy-seat 
— they were enthroned — they stood in closest prox- 
imity to the Invisible God. They could not signify 
angels, for angels have no share in the high office of 
Salvation ; to angels God has not put in subjection 
the world to come. But in these immediate sup- 
porters of the Most High — these Indicators of the 
Invisible — we can recognize no lower beings than the 
very Sharers of His own Being — Christ and the Spirit, 
We are not for a moment to think of these Cheru- 
bim, as suggesting any likeness of their persons, but 
simply set forth as symbols of their offices, as was 
everything else in this structure. And so they 
stand erect, as full of life. They spread out their 
wings, for they are full of all holy activity. Their 
faces look one to another, and toward the Mercy- 
seat ; for in their holy fellowship, their one aim is to 
develop this work of atonement to its richest results 
of righteousness. It is the Risen Jesus, and it is His 
Holy Spirit, who have now to carry out the Covenant 
in the hearts of men. They alone can write it there. 
They alone can give true knowledge of what it is. 
They alone can incline the heart to heed it. Those 
who are redeemed from the curse of a broken law, find 
their refuge here. They come under the protection 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. 



131 



of Christ and the Spirit. Their Power and their 
Presence are the wings that overshadow them ; as 
their Lord Himself has promised, " All power is 
given unto me in Heaven and in earth ;" and, " Lo I 
am with you all the days, even unto the end of the 
world." 

In the Ark of the Covenant, then, we behold the 
entirety of Christ's relation to the Law, as developed 
in three great parts. We see at once a Life which 
is our perfect pattern ; a Death which is our perfect 
propitiation ; and a Living forevermore, which is 
our perfect provision for living also ; even the two- 
fold might of an Advocate with the Father, and an- 
other Comforter with us.* Under those outspread 
wings, our human life expands to meet the measures 
of things divine. This is the security that we have 
now in Christ ; and hereby we know that the Living 
God is among us, and will, without fail, drive out every 
enemy before us. 

In this same Ark, as placed afterwards in the Tem- 
ple, we find some significant changes, at which it may 
be well to glance. The Cherubim are there made of 
olive-wood, overlaid with gold, instead of being as in 
the Tabernacle, all of gold. As man, Christ does not 
yet reign; but when He so reigns, we shall reign 
also. The Temple sets forth the greater glory of His 
Kingdom, when firmly established. Redeemed man 
in that Kingdom, " when the Son of Man shall come 
* Cf. John xiv. 16, and 1 John ii. 1 — In both U.apdK?.Tjrog. 



^2 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

in His glory," is to be even enthroned.* They that 
have part in the first resurrection, are to " live and 
reign with Christ." Upon the right hand of the 
King is to stand " the Queen in gold of Ophir."f 
Christ, the Bridegroom, is to present unto Himself 
" a glorious Church," as His chosen Bride. % Noiv, 
it is Christ and His Spirit, who reign, by virtue of 
their Divinity, as shadowed in the temporary struc- 
ture of the Tabernacle, where the Cherubim were all 
of gold. But then it will be the " olive-wood overlaid with 
gold!' As the wood is the emblem of humanity, so 
the olive-wood symbolizes its interpenetration by the 
Spirit, which found one of its most appropriate figures 
in the oil-olive. Christ through the Holy Ghost tak- 
ing our nature upon Him, and we through the Holy 
Ghost becoming partakers of His Divine nature — He, 
the only begotten, Eternal Son of the Father, born 
of woman, and we born again of God, are yet to be 
brought into that wondrous union, which is by pre- 
eminence the "great mystery" of the Gospel, as well 
as God's " eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
Christ is yet to be all for His Church, and His Church 
all for Him. Few know this hope of their calling — 
none unless God hath revealed it unto them by His 
Spirit. To all others it is as an idle tale, heard, but 
neither believed nor understood. 

The Ark of the Covenant, then, that goes before us 

i 
* Rev. iii. 21. t Ps. xlv. 9 \ Eph. v. 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. 



153 



is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a glorious thing to 
have a Covenant embodied in a Person, to have the 
" exceeding great and precious promises" made secure 
to us in a still more precious Promiser. 

But the Ark of the Covenant, borne on before all 
the people into the opening pathway, told not only 
of Jesus, but of Jesus as our Forerunner — the first to 
pass through the barriers that shut us out from our 
inheritance. He went down first of all, setting His 
feet in the brim of the waters, as our Priest, and the 
Prince of Faith. He passed bn into the flood, that 
swelled for Him beyond all bounds, as it never 
swelled before or since, and never can again. For He 
touched the waters of sorrow, that they might hence- 
forth be cut off, and our sorrow turned into joy. He 
touched the waves of Temptation, and they rolled 
away beneath His feet. He met the Tempter, only 
that He might depart from him, and that his works 
might be destroyed. He touched the billows of 
death, and they also rolled far away. He tasted 
death, only that through death, He might destroy 
him who held its power. Every high wave that was 
ready to overwhelm humanity, was stayed as the Son 
of man entered. 

For while the Lord Jesus went before us as the 
Son of God, He went also as Man, and as the Repre- 
sentative of Man. It is therefore the Baptism of 
Humanity that we witness in His own. As the Son 
of man, He rested entirely upon the power of the 



134 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Spirit. Conceived by the Holy Ghost, He could live 
a sinless human life. Baptized by the descent of the 
Spirit, at His baptism in Jordan, He went " in the 
power of the Spirit " to His ministry of words and 
works. And yet He had still another baptism to be 
baptized with, so emancipating, so glorious, that He 
could only say, " How am I straitened till it be accom- 
plished."* Therefore, when through the Eternal Spirit, 
He offered Himself without spot unto God, then the 
Body also shared in the wondrous power. It could 
not be holden of death ; it rose, passed into new 
freedom, was transfigured, spiritualized. For forty 
days on earth, and ten in heaven, the work went on. 
And now, as soon as the rich anointing oil that was 
poured forth, had covered the head of the great High 
Priest, then it began to flow down to the skirts of the 
garments. So when Jesus was glorified, the Holy 
G J lost was given. 

Henceforth, there was a new mold for man — the 
Son of Man glorified. Whatsoever He was, or will be 
as man, that He would have us also become. And 
wheresoever He goes, there it is His will that we 
should follow. The exceeding greatness of God's 
power to us-ward who believe, is only to be measured 
by what " He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him 
from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in 

* See on this interpretation of Luke xii. 50, some extremely in- 
teresting thoughts on " the Glorification of Christ " in Chap. xv. 
of Jesus and the Coming Glory, by Joel Jones, LL.D. 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. 



135 



the heavenly places." Nor let our faith falter, as this 
measure reaches on and on — " far above all princi- 
pality, and power, and might, and dominion, and 
every name that is named, not only in this world, but 
also in that which is to come ; " — and still on — for 
" He hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him 
to be the Head over all things to the Church, which 
if, His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in 
all."* 

These are not the words of ecstatic song, but " the 
words of truth and soberness." And yet, how shall 
the Christian be persuaded of them, and embrace 
them? — for there are multitudes who miss them. 
In their narrow thought, and in feeble faith, they see 
not the great object of God in drawing nigh unto us 
in the flesh. They put Him back again far from them. 
They receive the blessing of His humanity, so far as 
to claim in Him the friend of sinners ; but they do 
not let Him come nigh enough to be truly their 
brother — much less are they looking for Him, and 
making ready for Him, as the Bridegroom.f They 
still measure their risen life by their old life, and for- 
get that Christ leads us on to that true ideal of man 
which first appeared in Him. It is a new path to a 
new glory. None of us has " gone this way hereto- 
fore ;" for man was not created thus, nor has he 
ever been able, nor will he ever be of himself, to 
reach such a height. It is the calling of the Church, 

* Eph. i. 19-23. t Rev. xix. 7. 



136 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



even to be FOR Christ, IN Christ, LIKE Christ, and 
with Christ forever. 

Yet, let it never be forgotten, that a reverent space 
was to be left between the people and the Ark. The 
Ark was to stand in its solitary majesty, upheld so 
high upon the shoulders of the Priests, that while 
supporting it, they should not screen it. And then, 
two thousand cubits intervened between it and their 
pathway. " Come not near unto it," was the charge, 
" that ye may know the way by which ye must go."* 
In all our drawing nigh unto God, we are never to lay 
aside the " reverence and godly fear." Whenever 
mysticism, in her extreme forms, has forgotten this, 
there has invariably followed, first, the indulgence of 
self, and then, that which Neander has so aptly called 
" The gulf of pantheistic self-deification." f 

A vast space must ever lie between our derived 
and dependent life, and His life and glory, who is God 
over all, and never will the life which is so closely 
united with His, become identical. 

But while the Ark upborne in Jordan teaches us 
such wondrous truth, another touch of power is given 
to the picture, in its tarrying till all was accomplished. 
" For the priests, which bare the Ark, stood in the 



* Josh. iii. 4. 

t The whole passage in which he traces " the very thin and 
subtle line which often separates truth from error," is a profound 
analysis of the tendency referred to. See his " Church History " 
(Clark's Ed.), Vol. IX., pp. 535-6. 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT 



137 



midst of Jordan, until everything was finished that 
the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the peo- 
ple, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua ; 
and the people hasted and passed over!' * All these 
glorious provisions of the Gospel stand secure, till all 
the ransomed have learned the power of Christ's 
resurrection. Not only has the Lord Jesus gone 
before us to prepare our way, but He sits at the 
right hand of God, "waiting until His enemies be 
made His foot-stool." f How majestically calm and 
patient those waiting years of Christ, because so confi- 
dent. When He purposed to crown His Temple 
with this High Tower of the Church, He counted the 
cost, and found that He had sufficient to finish it. 

The looker-on, knowing little of Divine Art, may 
" despise the day of small things," and often question 
if the Gospel has not failed in the accomplishment 
of its full design. But a word has been spoken more 
sure than that of any earthly builder : " The hands 
of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, 
his hands shall also finish it." % Those blessed hands 
have never laid down the work. Whether it be a 



* Josh. iv. 10. t Heb. x. 13, Udexo/uevo^. 

X Zech. iv. 9. " It must be remembered in reading" these 
prophecies that as David is the type of Christ, and not only so, 
but Christ Himself is also called David by the Prophets, so 
Zerubbabel (the seed of David, and leader of the people from 
captivity, and builder of the Temple) is not only a type of Christ, 
but Christ is called Zerubbabel." — See Bishop Wordsworth's 
Minor Prophets. 



138 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

day, or a thousand years, it is all one in His sight. 
He waits, while to so many His " long-suffering is 
salvation ;" He waits, and as the long procession of 
His followers files on, He ever reassures their hearts, 
" Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end 
of the world !" He waits, until " everything be fin- 
ished." The great Architect will eventually suffer 
no blemish, and no lack, in His great work. And as 
once when He laid the foundation, upon His cross in 
Sacrifice, He cried aloud that it was finished, so will 
He yet cry louder with the shout of exceeding joy, 
when the whole Salvation is finished. " He shall 
bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings, 
crying, Grace, grace, unto it."* And that which is 
true for the Church which is His body, is true for 
each member of it. The Apostle Paul might well 
say to his beloved Philippians, " I am confident of 
this very thing, that He who hath begun a good 
work in you, will perfect it, even until the day of 
Jesus Christ." He has learned veiy little of the 
character of Christ, who can think of Him as possibly 
forsaking the works of His own hands. The prayer 
of David that He would not do it, was one of full 
confidence, for it is preceded by these words of trust, 
"The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: 
Thy Mercy, O Lord, endureth forever." f And yet, 
while this is absolutely true, it is possible upon the 

* Zech. iv. 7. f Ps. cxxxviii. 8. 



THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. 



139 



other hand, to " frustrate the Grace of God " in our 
individual growth, and so even while saved, to suffer 
loss ; and possible also, to delay His coming for His 
Church.* Blessed are all who can say in sincerity, 
" I do not frustrate the Grace of God." 

In the history of this crossing of Jordan, there is a 
beautiful conjunction of God's waiting, and of man's 
hastening. The Priests and the Ark stood still ; but 
" the people hasted and passed over." Many com- 
mentators assume that they hastened from fear. But 
while the form of the verb does not in the least indi- 
cate this, it would also be out of all harmony with 
the history. Hastening for fear, when so many miles 
above them the bed of Jordan lay dry ! Hastening 
for fear, when they saw the Ark of God and His 
Priests far nearer any possible danger than them- 
selves ! Hastening for fear over Jordan, when their 
fathers had marched through the flood of the Red 
Sea on foot, rejoicing in God ! Such haste would 
have been both utterly unseemly, and an evil omen 
for the conquest. There were other reasons for mak- 
ing all possible haste. Were they not keeping the 
priests of God with their arms outstretched, to bear 
up their holy burden ? And moreover, there, dis- 

*Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 15, and 2 Peter iii. 12. See Dean Alford's 
Greek Testament upon Gnevdovrac, in the latter passage, which he 
renders thus : " Hastening - the advent of the day of God." If 
it be possible to hasten Christ's coming it is also possible to hin- 
der it. 



140 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



tinct before them, beautiful in the soft, rich light of 
the early morning, lay the homes, and vineyards, and 
fields, which they were to possess. It was but a little 
space to cross — they could see the very flowers bow- 
ing with the weight of the dew — a little space, and 
an open path. A few steps, and their feet would be 
in Canaan ; a few moments, and the weary waiting of 
years would end. As the tired laborer hastes at the 
first glimpse of his home, so must they have hastened. 
There may have been, also, some innocent rivalry to 
be among the first to touch the further shore. All 
these motives, indeed, might easily combine as they 
hastened and passed over. And shall not the thought 
that Jesus waits, till all be gathered in — waits, with- 
out coming yet " in His power and great glory " — • 
waits for His coming and His espousals — shall not 
this thought stir up His Church, not only to be look- 
ing for, but hastening His coming ? By all the dili- 
gence we give to make our calling and election sure — 
by all our diligence in adding to our faith the graces 
that complete it — by all our hastening to pass over 
and share the risen life of Christ, and receive the ful- 
ness of His blessing, do we at the same time render 
it possible for Him to hasten ? The love of Christ 
constraining us, will urge us onward. And who that 
has had " the eyes of the understanding opened/' to 
behold what are " the riches of the glory" of this 
inheritance in Christ Jesus, would not fain 'to his 



THE ARK OF THE CO VENA NT. 



I4T 



speed add wings/ that he might enter it, and at once 
possess it ? 

When Israel came out of Egypt, two opposite com- 
mands were given to them : the first, "Stand still and 
see the salvation of God ;" the second, " Speak to 
my people that they go forward." So again, upon 
the banks of Jordan, there were days of quiet resting, 
before they could hasten and pass over. No one can 
ever go forward in the strength of God, till he has 
first stood still in his own utter helplessness. But 
when the call is heard, and the promise given, then 
go forward he must, or forfeit all before him. All 
these gracious promises, so ancient, so often renewed — 
all the provision for the future in the land — all this 
patient preparation — all the stay of God's presence 
and power — all these are forfeited, if he fail to go 
forward in the obedience of faith. " If ye know these 
things, happy are ye if ye do them." 

Most ruinous to faith, is that serious sentimentality 
which admires the truth, studies it, teaches it, and 
even thinks to hold it as its own ; but does not after 
all suffer itself to be possessed by it. Truth asks for no 
patronizing. It calls for humble, submissive, loyal 
hearts. Its command is, "Go forward — Hasten." 
And, indeed, it is not enough that we go forward. 
We must also HASTEN, if the fulness of blessing is 
ever to be ours. We are solemnly told that only as 
we "give diligence" shall we make our calling and 



142 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



election sure; that only as we "show the same dili- 
gence" shall we have "the full assurance of hope 
unto the end." Respecting this very type we read 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " Let us, therefore, 
hasten* to enter into this rest ;" and again, we learn 
how it is that in "giving all diligence," " an entrance 
shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the ever- 
lasting kingdom." f 

The Lord of the Covenant passing on before us at 
once our Ark, our Priest, our Leader, calls to His 
halting disciples, "Follow *me — FOLLOW ME." And 
" he that believeth shall not make haste " \ for any 
fear ; but for the joy of following Him, whithersoever 
He goeth, "thy children shall make haste!" § 

* Heb. iv. ii, l7rovddoo)iuev — elsewhere rendered, be diligent. 
t 2 Pet. i. 5-1 1. X Is. xxviii. 16. § Is. xlix. 17. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MEMORIAL STONES. 

Ur PHESE STONES SHALL BE FOR A MEMORIAL 
A UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FOREVER." 
—{Josh. iv. 7.) 

After the crossing of Jordan, immediate steps were 
taken to keep the great event alive to all coming gen- 
erations. By express command of the Lord, twelve 
stones were carried from the bed of Jordan, where 
the priests had stood, and were set up at Gilgal, 
where the children of Israel lodged that night. As 
the song of Moses preserved the memory of the Red 
Sea Crossing, so now that they have at last reached 
a spot which is not to be left behind in journeying, 
a more solid memorial is to bear witness to the won- 
derful works of the Lord. 

The lessons to be learned from these stones of 
memorial, are more simple than many others in this 
history, and yet of too much importance to be wholly 
slighted. The first suggested, is the duty of " well 
remembering " whatever the Lord has done. There 
are steps in our Christian course which can never be 
repeated in act, but which need often to be repeated 

('43) 



144 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

in vivid remembrance. The blessed influences of a 
moment may thus be diffused over a lifetime. It 
may often happen, also, that the significance of an 
act not fully recognized at the time, may so grow 
upon the soul that, like those fruits which mellow long 
after they are gathered, its real blessedness is tasted 
in far distant years. Indeed, the events are very few 
which assume their full importance at the time. The 
thought of this should quiet that keen regret, which 
would fain transfer to the past, the fuller comprehen- 
sion of the present. Mere sentiment might thus re- 
ceive a finer gratification ; but still all really solid 
and substantial uses may be served by a right re- 
membrance. 

On the other hand, forgetfulness of our past bless- 
ings and of the wonderful ways of our God, is un- 
speakable loss. He who has " forgotten that he was 
purged from his old sins," has lost the very main- 
spring of Christian progress. For as remembrance 
means renewal, so does forgetfulness mean forfeiture. 
A lively faith will always be blessed with a clear mem- 
ory, and thus forgetfulness is one of the earliest and 
surest symptoms of unbelief. " They soon forgat His 
works/' is equivalent to saying that their faith had 
waned. So Jesus upbraids His disciples who, after 
twice seeing the multitude fed by Him, were heard 
reasoning because they had no bread — " And do ye 
not remember?"* Throughout the Epistles remark- 

* Mark viii. 18. 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



H5 



able stress is laid upon the power of such recollec- 
tion. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, that if they 
kept in memory that which he had preached and 
they received, they should be saved.* And to the 
Ephesians, seated in heavenly places, he writes : 
'- Wherefore remember !" They were still to bear 
constantly in mind that they had once been far off, 
and were made nigh only by the blood of Jesus. 
Again, how earnestly he charges Timothy, " Of these 
things put them in remembrance." Still more strik- 
ing are the words of the Apostle Peter, who an- 
nounces his design in both his Epistles to be this, to 
" stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance." f 
Well taught as had been his hearers, and profound 
as was his own knowledge of the truth, there yet 
seemed to him nothing so pressing as this. " Where- 
fore," he writes, " I will not be negligent to put you 
always in remembrance of these things, though ye 
know them and be established in the present truth. 
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this taber- 
nacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. 
Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after 
my decease to have these things always in remem- 
brance." % In these Athenian days, when men spend 
their time either in telling or hearing some new thing, 
and even in the house of God listen restlessly to old 
truth, we have need to be reminded of this high 



* 1 Cor. xv. i, 2. f 2 Pet, Hi. 1. J 2 Pet, i. 12-15, 

7 



I4 6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

authority for such reiteration of it, as shall keep it 
always in mind. And it is safe to say that whenever 
the truth, as already heard, has been assimilated, 
there will always be fresh eagerness to hear it again, 
as both new and old. It is through such constant 
remembrance, that faith is found ripening into ever 
richer experiences. 

As to the significance of the stones themselves 
thus set up at Gilgal, there are two interpretations — 
not, however, in conflict, but the one being rather 
continued and completed in the other. We may re- 
gard them, in the first place, and with reference to 
the foothold they supplied, as representing the word 
and promises of God, which are the stay and support 
of the soul ; and then in their fuller meaning, that 
same word as embodied in the risen life of Believers, 
and especially in the twelve Apostles. 

As to the first of these meanings, we have to note 
that the stones were taken out of the place where 
the priests' feet stood firm. To hold the Ark stead- 
ily up before the eyes of the people who looked to 
this as their security, there was needed firm foot- 
ing—such footing as could be found only on a. rock. 
Doubtless the first efforts of the priests would be to 
secure this standing. And whether we regard the 
bearers of the Ark as representing Christ, the Up- 
holder of His own Covenant, or as still further signi- 
fying the delegation of this priestly privilege to oth- 
ers — wna t in either case could give firm foothold, 



ME MORTAL STONES 

147 

save that Word of God, which is very sure and very 
steadfast ? " The True Sayings of God "-" The ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises "—these furnish 
a firm foundation in the deepest depths. Brought 
out of the horrible pit and the miry clay, the feet 
may be set upon these as on a rock. 

Each priest stood upon his own stone, and then a 
man out of each tribe was appointed to bring up 
each one a stone. Their distinctness was not to be 
lost in the monument as a whole, for the question 
of coming ages was to be, " What mean ye by these 
stones r Practically, it is not upon the entire revela- 
tion of God, but upon some one portion of it, that 
each man takes his stand. Any one of the promises 
appropriated singly in an hour of need, will yield far 
more support than a general conviction of the truth 
of all. Because there is always some promise that is 
not only secure, but precisely adapted to our present 
need, and which while it does not distinctly include, 
yet powerfully suggests the whole Gospel. Christian 
Biography abounds with instances, where an epoch of 
life was characterized by the vivid apprehension of 
some single saying, out of all the many words of 
God. 

It is well that there should be many stones, and 
many witnesses ; that as human needs are definite 
and varied, so should be also the instrumentalities. 
Each true witness for God can only bear his witness 
from his own experience, and in his own way ; and 



iaS the fulness of blessing. 

there will always be those that could receive no 
other. Many ropes may be thrown from the life- 
boat ; it is salvation to grasp but one— the nearest. 
Twelve manner of fruits grow, each in their season, 
upon the tree of life ; it is the best sustenance for 
the hungry to take that which is ripest. By twelve 
gates will the holy city be entered, and the right gate 
for all those who come from the north, and from the 
south, from the east, and from the west, is that which 
we see upon our own side, and can reach by the short- 
est road. And so while there are twelve stones, to 
each his own stone will seem the strongest and surest. 
That promise of God in which he first clearly finds 
the resurrection-power of Jesus, must needs be the 
most precious. Again and again will he prove it. 
Like the sword of David, it is that with which he 
triumphed at the first, and " there is none like that: 1 

As these stones were set up at Gilgal, and they 
gathered round them, on that most memorable night 
of first resting in the land of rest, how naturally would 
each of the priests point to his own stone, and say, 
" Upon this one it was that my feet stood firm ;" while 
another near him would make answer, " And that same 
stone it was that I brought up upon my shoulder." The 
joy of all would be multiplied by the special joy on 
the part of each ; and their sense of possession in the 
whole memorial, be heightened by the fact of their 
peculiar portion in a part. 

It would furnish a most interesting study, to con- 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



149 



sider in the case of the Apostles, so far as we have a 
record of their faith, what it was that was the per- 
sonal stand-point of each. And another study might 
be made more complete, in considering what twelve 
true sayings of God, would best set forth the manifold- 
ness and adaptiveness of His truth ; and whose feet 
also they had stayed, and on whose shoulders they 
had been carried as trophies. 

But without attempting this, let one stone be here 
brought over, and set up as a memorial ; not only be- 
cause personally, exceedingly precious, but also because 
it is so broad that the whole world might stand there, 
if they would. " He that spared not His own 
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how 
shall He not with Him also freely give us 
ALL THINGS ?" As in a granite rock, glittering with 
its clear crystals, so out of this strong logic of the Gos- 
pel, there flashes all the light of love. There it stands 
in the past — that great fact — that Christ died — died 
because " God so loved the world/' Such a gift once 
given, what else shall He not give ! 

" Behold His greatest gift of all is free, 
And pledges every lesser gift to thee !" 

It was in vain that Archimedes sighed for his 
ttov orti from which to move the earth ; but in the 
marvellous mechanics of Grace, the Cross of Christ is 
that stand-point which has been given, and from which 
He will yet move the Universe. There we may stand 



i5o 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



in all our weakness, and wait and watch to see Him 
work His wonders. And to what a climax of hope 
we climb, as word after word of this persuading prom- 
ise sets our feet higher yet : "How — shall He 7iot — 
with Hi7n — also — freely — give us — all things ? ' How 
the strong arches stretch in succession over the whole 
wide stream of judgment ! Or rather, we may behold 
it, as the one lithe span of a Sure Salvation, suspended 
over the chasm sundering earth and heaven, and let 
down on either side from the High Towers of a 
Father's and a Brother's love ! 

This sure word of promise, is no private title deed, 
but the broad charter of all who claim their citizen- 
ship in Heaven. Every one, who has received Christ 
at all as a Saviour, may go on to receive with Him 
all things. If any one admit the least flaw in this title 
to the fulness of Grace and Glory, he at the same time 
disallows it all, and must stand wholly disinherited. 
For with what consistency can he who claims not all, 
claim anything ? " ALL THINGS " — " FOR US ALL " — 
for whom Christ died. Such is the substance of the 
Promise. 

" All things, for us all." Such a saying should silence 
forever all the babbling of the faithless, who still 
insist, " These blessings are for a few, not for all — not 
for me." But God has graven it in the Rock forever, 
"All things for us all." Venture, then, timid 
traveller, upon this sure promise of thy God. 

Here, take thy stand upon the Rock, saying, " I 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



151 



can do no other." Make this thy stepping-stone into 
the Land of Promise, and the power of Christ's Res- 
urrection. Make this also thy sure foundation, and 
there uphold the glorious Covenant, in the eyes of all 
whose feet seem ready to fail for fear. Set it up as 
thy memorial, and keep it always in thy remembrance. 
And thou shalt never need to seek for any other stone 
upon which to write thy Eben-ezer; but with every 
coming day, thou canst still say, " Hitherto hath the 
Lord helped me," and so set to thy seal that God is 
true. 

But to pass on to the fuller significance of this 
symbol. The word of God thus proven in experience, 
becomes embodied in the life of the Believer. Each 
faithful confessor of His Lord becomes a Rock, and 
is built up as a living stone, in that monument which 
witnesses to the power and wisdom of God — His holy 
Church. The Resurrection of Jesus was followed by 
the setting up of its foundations, and as it " groweth to 
an holy Temple," it is the truest trophy which He 
exhibits to the Universe. Christian Confession, Chris- 
tian Character, Christian Conduct — these are the true 
memorials of a Risen Saviour. And as the stones at 
Gilgal renewed from age to age the question, " What 
mean ye by these stones ?" — so will it always be that 
such a life will suggest the deepest searching into the 
ways of God. Very sweetly, in words that are daily 
endeared to the hearts of thousands, has this great 
need been shaped into the prayer, " We beseech thee, 



152 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSLYG. 



give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our 
hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may 
show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in 
our lives ; by giving up ourselves to thy service, 
and by walking before thee in holiness and right- 
eousness, all our days."* 

Meanwhile, there is one great memorial, that has 
already been set up, and that has stood strong 
throughout the ages — twelve goodly stones that 
have been marked with special honor — the Twelve 
Apostles of our Lord. Distributing to the many 
members of the one body their gifts and offices, 
" God hath set in the Church, first, Apostles' 1 Joined 
in a peculiarly close and sacred fellowship with the 
Chief Corner-stone, these twelve were to constitute 
the first solid round of foundation stonesf which in 
all the future growth of the Holy Temple could 
never be repeated. The Building could only be fitly 
framed together, by every other stone being built 
upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets4 



* Book of Common Prayer — General Thanksgiving- of Morning 
and Evening Prayer. 

t Rev. xxi. 14. 

% '"Ye are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ' (Eph. ii. 20). 
The corner-stone is but part of the foundation, though it be the 
first and the chief part ; and this consolidation of the corner- 
stone with the adjacent foundations, as one basement to sustain 
the building, exhibits in the plainest manner the fact, that the 
Church, in respect of its faith, rests upon a testimony which 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



153 



Chosen to be witnesses of Christ's Resurrection, they 
are set up as soon as their Lord has passed over 
through death into life. The importance of their 
office may be somewhat measured from that long 
night of solitary prayer on the mountain-top, which 
preceded their call, as well as from all the solemn, 
sacred words and acts of their subsequent commis- 
sion. 

Were our Gospel given us only in the life of Jesus 
upon earth — had our New Testament closed with the 
record of the Evangelists — we should have had only 
that which " Jesus began both to do and teach." For 
its completion and its full preparation for the world, 
it was needful that it should be wrought out practi- 
cally in merely human lives. It was fitting, also, that 
the number selected for the first exhibition of this new 
power, should be the same as that so often chosen by 
God as representing human instrumentality. Twelve 
is the multiple of that number which marks the Tri- 
une Being of God, and of that other which denotes 
earthly expansion, and completeness of human com- 
bination.* Thus both Divine and human factors are 



was delivered partly by Jesus in person, and partly by the agents 
whom for that purpose He ordained. Their inspiration as be- 
lievers associates them with the whole Church ; their inspiration 
as teachers unites them only with their Lord." — Bernard'' s Prcg~ 
ress of Doctrine in the New Test., p. 125. 

* See page 194-5 of Vol. I. of Bahr's " Symbolik des Mosai- 
schen Cultus " (Heidelberg, 1874.) See also the Introduction to 
Lange's Com. on the Revelation of St. John. 



154 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

seen in the number of Instruments, set apart by God, 
for working upon man, through man. 

Thus then were the Twelve Apostles set forth as 
our examples — taken out of the common quarries of 
humanity, even out of its roughest regions — to show 
before the world, what forms of God-like manliness 
the great Sculptor could shape and polish. 

And standing first as ensamples, they are also 
clothed with high authority. It was the safety of 
the earliest converts, that " they continued steadfastly 
in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship." It is still 
the safety of the Church, even for such as are " proph- 
ets " and " spiritual," to acknowledge the things which 
they wrote unto us, as the commandments of the 
Lord* 

" What mean ye by these stones ? " was the inquiry 
to be ever incited by the memorial at Gilgal. And a 
question like it still confronts the sceptic and the 
careless — What mean these Living Stones — these 
lives of Christ's Apostles ? 

What mean from simple peasants and fishermen 
such dignity and grandeur ? — out of a nation so nar- 
row and so rigid, such breadth, such pliability ? — What 
mean in men who have sheathed the sword, a zeal 
and courage that no warrior ever matched ? — What 
mean from unlearned and ignorant men, those torrents 
of effective eloquence ? — What mean — we will not 
ask the " signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds," 
* i Cor. xiv. 37. 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



155 



which men have mocked and mimicked — but that 
Patience, which is the foremost sign of an Apostle,* 
whereas no enchantment can ever "do in like man- 
ner?" — What can they mean save this, that Christ who 
died is risen again, and that these are the witnesses of 
His Resurrection, each of whom can say, " Christ 
liveth in me." 

It must not be overlooked that while these twelve 
stones upon the further shore constituted the great 
memorial, twelve other stones were set up in the 
midst of Jordan to mark the place where the Ark of 
the Covenant had gone down ; and, says the histo- 
rian, " There they are unto this day." 

For never, while giving testimony to " Jesus and 
the Resurrection," must the deep valley of His death 
be forgotten. The Lord Himself has taught us how 
we should behold Him now, in those words that 
opened the Apocalypse, " I am the Living One and 
I BECAME DEAD." " There they are unto this day" — 
the Agony — the Trial — the Cross — the Tomb! 
There it was that He stood so long for our sakes 
that He might bring us unto glory. Yea, even let 
Him remain, " a Lamb as it had been slain in the midst 
of the Throne !" 

So, also, in that Memorial, which would be robbed 
of its chief blessing, were it not the communion of 
the soul with an ascended, glorified Lord, how clearly 
are we still pointed to the broken body, and the shed 

* 2 Cor. xii. 12. 



l$6 THF FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

blood, and told, in tones that stir all our tenderest 
thoughts, " Do this in remembrance of me." 

It may be permissible to regard one more final 
lesson as suggested by this latter group of stones. 
Taken as they were from the Land of Promise itself, 
and carried back to the bed of the river, they may 
set forth the call of some of God's servants, to a 
special fellowship in the sufferings of Christ, for His 
service sake. The call of the Apostle Paul was thus 
marked, — " I will show him how great things he must 
suffer for my name's sake." 

So he counted not his life dear unto himself, that 
he might fulfil his ministry ; and thus he filled up 
" that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ," 
for the sake of His Church. 

And so we may find indicated in these deep-sunkeit. 
stones, what one of the most spiritual of the German 
divines has spoken of as, " the deep principle that to 
every vessel of grace, and especially every witness of 
the Gospel, suffering is inevitable ; and that the meas- 
ure of affliction is in proportion to the height and 
dignity of the vocation."* To all His disciples Christ 
gives His seven-fold Benediction ;f but he has an- 
other beyond these,;f wherewith to crown His Kings 
and Priests ; that suffering for righteousness' sake, they 
might " rejoice and be exceeding glad." 



* Rudolph Stier, " Words of the Risen Saviour,'' p. 36. 
t Matt. v. 3-9. X Matt. v. 10. 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



157 



Ye whom God honors thus, be not moved by these 
afflictions. Let your hearts be comforted by the 
words of one, who knew full well of what he spoke, 
11 Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only 
to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." 
" It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with Him 
we shall also live with Him ; if we suffer WE SHALL 
ALSO REIGN WITH HlM." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE REPROACH OF EGYPT. 

ii AND Joshua made him sharp knives and 

<£*■ circumcised the children of israel. 

And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day 

have i rolled away the reproach of egypt 

FROM OFF YOU." — (Josh. V. 3, 9). 

The first experience in the Land of Blessing was 
to be one of pain. As the people had needed a spe- 
cial preparation for passing over Jordan, so did the 
larger portion of them need a further preparation for 
the Conquest. Upon the other side the command of 
God had been, " Set yourselves apart." The time 
had come to carry out their consecration. The cove- 
nant of circumcision was to be renewed. Through 
all the bondage of Egypt it appears to have been ob- 
served, and nothing marks more clearly the demor- 
alization of the wilderness, than its utter neglect. 
" Now all the people that came out were circumcised ; 
but all the people that were born in the wilderness 
by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, them 
they had not circumcised." 
(158) 



THE REPROACH OF EGYPT. 



159 



The command seems very stern — " The Lord said 
unto Joshua, make thee sharp knives and circumcise 
again the children of Israel ; " yet it marks the good- 
ness rather than the severity of God. He was thus 
renewing for them a Covenant of Blessing. 

The first consequence of this covenant had been 
the change of Abram's name to Abraham, as now to 
be the father of many nations. Ninety years old and 
nine when he was circumcised, he must suffer in his 
'flesh, before the promised seed was given. God, who 
had called him out of his own country, that He might 
bless him, and make him a blessing,* who had ap- 
peared again as his shield and exceeding great re- 
ward, and counted his faith for righteousness,! now 
in this third call, summoned him to walk before Him, 
and to be perfect.;): He had led him up step by step 
to this absolute devotion to Himself, and so finally 
gave to him this significant token of the covenant, 
which He made with him and his posterity. The 
penalty of disobedience or of neglect was this — 
" That soul shall be cut off from his people : he hath 
broken my covenant." 

It is often questioned how far these types could 
be comprehended by the people who observed them. 
But in regard to this one, it appears certain that its 
moral import was seen. We find all along the record 
of its outward observance, a contemporary spiritual 

* Gen. xii. 1-3. t Gen. xv. 1-5. % Gen. xvii. 1-10. 



!6o THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

use of the term. Even in the wilderness Moses called 
upon the people to " circumcise their hearts and be 
no more stiff-necked ;" and even there was the promise 
given, " The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, 
and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with 
all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou may- 
est live."* 

And seeking for its significance to us, we find in 
perfect accord with the appeals of the Old Testament, 
the teaching of the New, that circumcision is of the 
heart, in the spirit and not in the letter. We are 
shown that its present correlatives are, " the keeping 
of the commandments of God," "faith working by 
love," and " a new creature." We are told that " We 
then are the circumcision who worship God in the 
spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no con- 
fidence in the flesh ; " and that in our " circumcision 
made without hands," that which we have put off is 
" the body of the sins of the flesh." f As clearly as 
God commanded the shadow of things to come, when 
He made this special covenant with Abraham, so 
clearly did the Lord Jesus reenact its substance, when 
He turned and said unto His disciples, " If any man 
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up 
his cross and follow me. He that loveth his life 
shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world, 

* Deut. xxx. 6. 
t See i Cor. vii. 19; Gal. v. 6 and vi. 15; Phil. iii. 3, and 
Col. ii. 11. 



THE RE PR OA CH OF EG YP T. r 6 1 

shall keep it unto life eternal." * The lesson of cir- 
cumcision then, while including much beside, is fun- 
damentally this — the putting away of selfism, so af- 
fecting a radical change of life, by substituting for the 
love of self in all its intricate ramifications, the sin- 
gleness of love to God. The process changes the 
very polarity of our nature. In the world at large, 
" all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus 
Christ's." But the heart which the Lord has circum- 
cised to love Him, " seeketh not its own! y 

It is somewhat startling at first, to find such a scene 
of suffering over Jordan, since it would seem to be- 
long rather to the preparation. But the order in 
which it stands is certainly in accord with the develop- 
ments of Christian life. In the Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, St. Paul writes, " Ye are dead, and your life is 
hid with Christ in God ; mortify, therefore, your mem- 
bers which are upon the earth." The first working 
of the power of Christ's resurrection is in the fellow- 
ship .of His sufferings — His love of necessity con- 
straining us to die unto sin and self, and live unto 
Him. Only as we take our share in His life and in 
His love, can this be possible ; for there can be no 
such thing in Christian experience as the mere nega- 
tive abstinence from evil. Only a living and loving 
soul that has taken firm hold of the promises of God, 
can cleanse itself " from all filthiness of the flesh and 
of the spirit." No one would ever dream of attempt- 
* Matt. xvi. 24, and John xii. 25. 



\§2 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

ing to remove the darkness from a room, without 
letting in the light. And as the entering of the light 
removes the darkness, so must the Spirit come to 
banish self. 

Let no one be dismayed in the first joy of this res- 
urrection life, at finding that a painful process awaits 
him, and that all is not even yet left behind. But 
neither let him think that there can be any further 
progress, until his consecration has become a solemn 
covenant, sealed by sacrifice. He must neither des- 
pair at the discovery of self, nor fail to let it be cru- 
cified. 

Again, let none think that we are able to do this 
for ourselves. Jesus, our Joshua, is the only one who 
can cause His love so to constrain the soul, as to 
remove all " superfluity of naughtiness." And the 
sharp knife which He will use is His own Word, 
which is " quick and powerful, and sharper than any 
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asun- 
der of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 
heart." 

It is of the utmost importance for us to understand 
that whatever of self still exists in us, it can by no 
possibility be hidden from God. It is naked and 
open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to 
do. As clearly as Jesus read the hearts of those 
around Him when on earth, thus answering their 



THE REPROACH OF EGYPT. 



163 



thoughts rather than their words, so clearly does He 
comprehend every undercurrent, and subtle depth in 
our being now. We may be self-deceived, but we 
can never deceive the Lord. 

And very rarely are they deceived who walk in His 
light. When to that native intuition which often 
reaches far below the surface, there is added any 
power of discerning spirits, the true standing of those 
with whom they mingle is almost sure to be known 
— whether self be living or slain. How foolish, there- 
fore, not to say how sinful, to evade that knowledge 
of ourselves which others have. 

Christians are usually ready to make any amount 
of general confession of sin ; they recognize and la- 
ment the taint that is found everywhere in humanity. 
They can judge their own sin in the abstract ; but not 
always — not often — are they ready to humble them- 
selves, and receive the message, " Thou art the man." 
The Physician rarely finds his patient offended by a 
simple statement of his disease, but how few who, in 
the sickness of their souls, seek for spiritual counsel, 
are willing to be told the truth. Thoroughly aware 
of some difficulty, they think themselves ready for any 
sacrifice — for the removal of any hindrance. And it 
is no difficult task for one accustomed to deal with 
souls, to detect that special form of self v/hich is their 
snare. But if it be simply and honestly stated, of- 
fence is taken ; it is denied or evaded ; while the soul, 



164 77//; FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

to shelter its wounded pride, affects discouragement 
at such misunderstanding, and so, by its own wilful- 
ness, sinks into a worse condition than before. 

What wonder if even true and faithful friends, fore- 
seeing this, hesitate to perform an office which will 
not be accepted. It is a fearful thing when self has 
grown so strong, that in its pride it ceases to wel- 
come the truth. What if God also should be un- 
willing to force it upon those who so little desire it ! 
What if His only way to bring us to the knowledge 
of all that is in our heart, should be to leave us, that 
the sin which lies hidden in the depth of the heart, 
might work itself out in some bitter humiliation! 

It is perfectly certain that while self thus remains 
alive, there are many of the very richest blessings, 
which God can not possibly impart, save at the risk 
of most imminent peril to the receiver. They would 
be perverted at once, to minister to the life of self. 
This is the most common cause of those delays, which 
so many experience in receiving that which they have 
asked Silf is not slain. Some instances of this kind 
may be very perplexing, since such secret selfism may 
coexist with much zeal and outward fidelity, and many 
striking traits of Christian character. Especially may 
it coexist with the Stronger elements. The strong- 
man is lifted up because of his strength ; and his 
heart must needs be changed to that of a little child, 
before he can grow again in knowledge and in grace. 
Whoever stands self-sufficient, even in God-given wis- 



THE REPROACH OF EGYPT. 165 

dom and strength, has lost the power of receiving- 
more. He has to learn that men never grow — that 
only the child grows. When he is ready, even as a 
little babe, to desire the sincere milk of the word, 
then will God restore this privilege of growth. 

On the other hand, there are instances of those who 
pass into the inner courts, to behold the nearer glory 
of God, with an ease that is equally perplexing to the 
superficial eye. Their lives are not at the time purer, 
and in almost every respect they may exhibit less of 
strength, than those whom they outstrip. But they 
have one all-important prerequisite, simplicity of heart. 
"Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" 
said Jesus ; and " the Jew inwardly," whose " circum- 
cision is that of the heart," is thus ever recognized by 
the Lord, and receives praise of Him. 

The least portion of that guile which is even more 
deceived than deceiving, is an evil root in the soil, 
which proves the most difficult of all things to eradi- 
cate. It can live upon so little. It can die apparent- 
ly so often, and yet revive. But until self is really 
removed, and we come down below all pretence and 
conceit to solid ground — to a basis of entire truthful- 
ness toward God — how impossible to be solidly built 
up. As well might one venture a tower above a 
quicksand ! 

Never has a truth of God been so travestied as this 
of denying self, in that which passes usually under the 
name of self-denial — the giving up of the most that 



1 66 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

we may keep the dearest ; the denial of somewhat to 
ourselves instead of the denial of the ivhole self to 
God. We may let a thousand things go out of our 
life and die, but our life has not died. The world 
may have been crucified unto us, but not we unto the 
world. We may possibly have parted with our right 
hand, or our right eye, but still, " skin for skin, yea, 
all that a man hath will he give for his life" — a fact 
well known to Satan who said it. " Living in any- 
thing unto ourselves, even in the best things, is the 
essential of self. When self is dead, its own heart 
ceases to beat ; and every pulse of the new life, united 
unto Christ, keeps time with the throbbing of His 
own heart. The new heart which He has given, 
finds again the life which was lost for His sake, 
risen and glorified. It truly lives when it lives unto 
God. 

What shall be said of this great need of Christians, 
and of the thousands in whom self is still alive? How 
shall, indeed, any intimation of their need be given 
them ? How rend the veil of good works, and gifts, 
and graces, which drape and beautify this secret shrine 
of self ? But for so much that is excellent, one might 
come sooner to the knowledge of the evil. In the lives 
of not a few, there are two currents ; and we need 
thoroughly to understand that the under-current is 
the dangerous one. The eye that judges by the sur- 
face is not deceived — that current is real and regular; 
but as you enter the waters, you are swept along, 



THE REPROACH OE EGYPT. 



\6y 



helpless, by the fitful force below. In all partially 
subdued natures, there will be found more or less 
of the contrary of their chief characteristics. Are 
they humble in converse and manner ? — A secret 
pride or vanity finds a rich feeding-place beneath 
that humility, and some sudden outburst of jealousy 
or envy will betray it. Are they energetic, and full 
of stir and activity ? — Somewhere an unwelcome duty 
will be turned into a couch of luxurious ease. Is the 
whole bearing that of perfect candor and frankness ? 
— The occasion will come when insincerity will cloak 
itself with these, and pass unchallenged in its disguise. 
Is the life rich in its nobility and its generous deeds ? 
— Below this good graft will spring up offshoots of 
timidity and petty meanness, to surprise some one 
long wonted to the sweeter fruits, with the crabbed 
taste of these. Every close observer of unbalanced 
Christian character, is prepared to find the faults in 
this marked contrast to the virtues, so that whatever 
may be the general grain of the growth, a sudden knot 
breaks through at the sharpest possible angle. It 
has been often noticed that the points on which 
many break down, are their strong points. Even in 
what seems the most assured to us, we have thus to 
" have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we 
should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth 
the dead." 

Such are some of the subtleties of self, which only 
the most piercing Eye can fully see, and only the 



1 68 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Hand, that is infinitely tender, as well as true, re- 
move. 

But there are other more prominent and shameful 
forms of self, which prevail throughout the Churches. 
Among these, we may number that worldliness 
which is everywhere rampant ; the sensuality, or more 
refined sensuousness, which are asking, " What shall 
we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal 
shall we be clothed ?" — ambition and covetousness, 
which have never yet been exorcised, and which find 
their way into highest and holiest places ; that con- 
formity to custom, which is accepted as such a matter 
of course, that little room is left for asking, " Lord, 
what wilt Thou have me to do ?" — but their name is 
legion ! Sad as is the statement, such is beyond all 
question the prevalent state of Christians. — Uncircum- 
ciscd in heart — the self-denial which we witness, being 
too often either special and spasmodic on the one 
hand, or on the other, so ascetic as only to minister 
to spiritual pride. 

Such is the reproach of Egypt which God sum- 
mons us to roll away — the merited reproach that the 
old and evil nature is still visible, and that Christians 
are, after all, very much like others. Even amongst 
themselves, how utterly incomplete is the confidence 
which they can place in one another. Notwithstand- 
ing all that is lovely and of good report, how constant 
is the reproach. 

In one of the Messianic psalms, we find a cry that 



THE REPROACH OF EGxPT. j6j 

only falls short, in its sorrow, of the " lama sabacthani " 
of the Cross, " Remember, Lord, the reproach of 
thy servants ; how I do bear in my bosom the re- 
proach of all the mighty people ; wherewith Thine 
enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they 
have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed." * 
Alas ! that it should be His own anointed — that such 
should be the stains upon hearts and lives sprinkled 
by the blood of Christ, and consecrated by the holy 
oil of the Spirit. God chose His people to be to 
Him for a name and an honor, and behold the re- 
proach; He called them to be holy, and behold th* 1 
corruption. 

Of old the nationality of Israel was to be kept 
perfectly distinct. Yet it was not to be a nationality 
solely of birthright and of blood, for the circumcised 
stranger was to be as one born in the land. So, then, 
the physiognomy did not furnish the proof. The real 
tok,m by which they were known as the people of 
God, was not that which is most obvious, but that 
which is most hidden. And yet this secret separation 
to God, compelled in various ways a separation from 
others, that would always mark them openly. The 
line was drawn with unmistakable clearness. 

And though it be also with us " in the hidden man 

of the heart " that God puts His seal — still if it be 

there, by many another sign the world will know it, 

and we shall be separate from the world. When God 

* Ps. lxxxix. 50, 51 



170 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



calls upon us to circumcise our hearts, it practically 
involves this also — " Come out from among them and 
be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." 

The Jew has always been known as such at once. 
But can we as easily discern the Christian ? Here 
and there, " the ointment of the right hand bewrayeth 
itself." But how many who have professed to follow 
Christ, make themselves almost indistinguishable 
from a world that rejects Him ? No attempt at a 
merely external separation avails. Such was not that 
of Christ. He even shocked the social standard of 
those who were for making a fair show in the flesh ; 
and they said of Him — " This man receiveth sinners 
and eateth with them." But all the more for this 
was He " holy, harmless, undefiled — separate from 
sinners y 

When the Israelites hastened to pass over Jordan, 
their first thoughts as they looked on to Jericho, 
must have been of immediate battle, and of drawing 
the sword upon their enemies. Instead of this, God 
gave them days of delay, and drew the sharp knife 
upon them. Gilgal was their first encampment in 
Canaan, and there, where they had set up their monu- 
ment to the mercies of God, and then presented their 
bodies as living sacrifices, was their standard to re- 
main. Gilgal appears to have continued to be their 
base throughout the long war that followed. There 
must have been a moral power in every return to 
that spot, where they had first rolled together the 



THE REPROACH OF EGYPT. 



171 



memorial-stones — and then let God roll away their 
own reproach. He was their God, for He had done 
wondrous things for them ; and they were His peo- 
ple, for they had given themselves to Him. From 
Gilgal they could go forth again and again to conquer 
and possess the land. 

Have we our Gilgal? — Why, then, is it that so 
much of our service and warfare is uncrowned with 
success and victory ? Alas ! the house in which self 
has any dominion is a house divided against itself, 
and can not stand. And the Church so constituted, 
is a host with variance and rebellion in its midst — ■ 
weak at the best, and often in the very thick of the 
battle betrayed unto its enemies. If the Church of 
Christ would follow her Lord, as He goes forth " con- 
quering and to conquer," let her be truly consecrated 
and circumcised. If the Christian in the daily con- 
flicts of life, would first learn to "die daily/' there 
would never an enemy stand before him. But let 
him cease to wonder that he does not come off vic- 
torious, if he is saving his life from such a death. 

And yet it must needs be always a severe expe- 
rience for those who have been living at ease, and as 
they have tried to think in all good conscience ; very 
hard for those who have been held in high honor by 
their fellow-men ; and sharpest of all to those who 
have become half-spoiled by facile flattery, or their 
own fatal self-fondling ; — upon whose ears little but 
praise has ever fallen. The sharp knife of God as it 



1^2 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

touches these, will seem terrible in its truthfulness. 
They will almost demand that God should accept the 
award that has so satisfied themselves ; and so strug- 
gling against His purpose, they prolong their suffer- 
ings. Would that they only knew how tender and 
how true is the Hand that wounds them ! Then 
they would neither fear nor flinch ! 

For when we turn from the negative character of 
this symbol to the more positive form of the spiritual 
truth, we find that this sharp knife is, after all, only 
the pruning of the Husbandman, that the old decay- 
ing shoot may give place to a new one full of vigor 
and fruitfulness. It means not a maimed existence, 
but life more abundantly. It means not poverty, 
but wealth. It means not anger, but intensest love. 
It means that the one deadly element eliminated, God 
can then, without any reserve, flood us with every 
good thing. Self is often the only evil in many a 
pursuit and plan. That self once surrendered, they 
may be restored to us in all their richness to use and 
to enjoy for the glory of God, and to our own honor 
--an honor that cometh from Him. And yet even 
here must a signal of danger be held up. While he 
that loveth his life shall find it, it is not when we lose 
it that we may find it, but when we lose it for His 
sake. 

It is our own Gospel, then, that we read in those 
ancient words, " The Lord thy God will bring thee 
into the land, .... and the Lord thy God will circum- 



THE REPROACH OF EGYPT. 



173 



cise thine heart ... to love the Lord thy God with 
all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest 
live!' * 

Life is another thing when once a great love has 
entered it. Who has not known how Love turned 
pain to pleasure, and made sacrifices sweet ? Love 
never talks of crosses and of losses. — It calls its losses 
gains, and its crosses crowns. For my sake, makes 
even death a delight. When we so love the Lord 
with all the heart, then to follow Him fully is our 
own choice. There comes an end to all mere theo- 
retical consecration, in which we recognize solemnly 
the claims of God, and pass on our own way. There 
comes an end, also, to all testing of ourselves by 
suppositions of future claims. But another work 
begins — the constant cultivation of the conscience to 
see those claims. It is a little thing for Love to re- 
spond to an uttered wish. — It studies and anticipates 
the pleasure of the Beloved. The loving heart es- 
capes a thousand difficulties which others meet, and a 
truly devoted life is not often puzzled by details of 
duty. Such perplexities are often the simple result 
of a discordant will, seeking at once to please itself, 
and avoid displeasing God. The soul that so loves, 
walks in holy law, but moves in perfect freedom. 
When the Lord has enlarged the heart, then it 
" runs " in the way of His commandments. 

* Deut. xxx. 5, 6. 



174 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

" Love hath taught me to obey 
All His precepts, and to say, 
Not to-morrow, but to-day ! 

" What He wills, I say I must ; 

What I must, I say I will ; 
He commanding, it is just. 

What He would, I should fulfil : 
Whilst He biddeth, I believe ; 

What He calls for, He will give : 

To obey Him is to live. 

" His commandments grievous are not, 
Longer than men think them so ; 

Though He send me forth, I care not, 
Whilst He gives me strength to go, 

When or whither, all is one. 

On His business, not my own, 

I shall never go alone. 

" If I be complete in Him, 

And in Him all fulness dwelleth, 

I am sure aloft to swim, 
Whilst that Ocean overswelleth ; 

Having Him that's all in all, 

I am confident I shall 

Nothing want for which I call." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 

Ur PHE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ENCAMPED IN 
A GlLGAL, AND KEPT THE PASSOVER ON THE 
FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH AT EVEN, IN 
THE PLAINS OF JERICHO." — (Josh. V. 10). 

The event which we find following next in order, 
stood in a very significant relation to the preceding 
rite. As we have seen that circumcision symbol- 
ized the loss of self so we find that in the Passover 
Feast, the lesson taught is one of greatest gain — even 
the gain of Christ as OUR LIFE. 

It was a part of God's gracious providence to bring 
the people over Jordan in time to be rightly prepared 
for the Feast ; for the law was stringent — " No un- 
circumcised person shall eat thereof;"* for let it be 
again repeated, there can be no building up of an 
impure life ; no true communion with God, while in 
the bonds of self. 

And as the Passover thus depended upon another 
rite, so were there still further privileges depending 
upon this. This Feast was to precede their enjoy- 

* Ex. xii. 48. 

(175) 



jy6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

ment of the fruit of the land, of which they were 
not permitted to eat until the following day. Hav- 
ing crossed upon the tenth of the month Nisan, they 
kept the Passover upon its appointed day, the four- 
teenth : " and they did eat of the new corn of the 
land on the morrow after the Passover." * It is 
added that " the manna ceased on the morrow after 
they had eaten of the new corn." f Its continuance 
for nearly a week in a land of plenty, is a circum- 
stance so extraordinary, as to indicate at once some 
spiritual lesson. Indeed, the necessity for it must 
have ceased long before, upon entering the fertile 
region east of Jordan. But still it fell for their daily 
food, until the slain Lamb and unleavened Bread 
should rightly introduce them to the fulness and fat- 
ness of the Land. First the Passover, and then the 
new corn and the ripe fruit. First Christ, and then 
with Him, " all things." 

Though forty years had passed since that night in 
Egypt which was so much to be remembered, this 
was but the third Passover. The first they had eaten 
in haste, girded for their journey. The second was 
observed a year from that time, upon the setting up 
of the Tabernacle at Mt. Sinai. After that the 
neglect of circumcision and their whole abnormal 
condition in the Wandering, would render the Feast 
both inappropriate and impossible. No hint of any 
such observance appears upon the sacred page. 
* Josh. v. ii. See p. 200. f Josh. v. 12. 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 



177 



It is very striking that this first service after enter- 
ing Canaan, in which all the people participated, was 
the same as that which had signalized their depart- 
ure from Egypt. That first deliverance had alone 
made their present blessings possible. Therefore it 
had been said unto them, " Ye shall observe this 
thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for- 
ever. . . . And it shall come to pass when your chil- 
dren shall say unto you, What mean ye by this serv- 
ice ? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's 
passover, who passed over the houses of the children 
of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, 
and delivered our houses."* 

When the Lord smote in judgment all the first- 
born of Egypt, but for the sprinkled blood of the 
Lamb, they had all likewise perished. But for the 
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, none of us 
had ever escaped from the just judgment to be exe- 
cuted against sin. It was life from the very jaws of 
death that was given us. And so, as we celebrate 
the mercies of our God, we can not stop short of this, 
that " Jesus delivered us from the wrath to come." 
Nothing so prepares us for advancing blessing as our 
return to this truth ; and by every good thing that 
is given us, does this become ever more precious. No 
other thought can so humble us, and none other can 
so lift us up in holy hope. 

This Passover in Canaan, however, differed widely 

*' Ex. xii. 24-27. 
8* 



1 78 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

in its mode of observance from the first in Egypt. 
Indeed, the whole subsequent character of the Feast 
is one of the most striking instances occurring under 
the Law, of the spirit of a command being so devel- 
oped as to almost outgrow its letter. The Lamb and 
the Unleavened Bread indeed remained. But glanc- 
ing over the details of its institution, we see at once 
that the minute directions given were mainly adapted 
to their peculiar position at the time, and if perpetu- 
ated at all, could only become mere forms. Yet we 
find in the Scriptures no record of any permission to 
vary its observance, and only slight and scattered 
statements of the changes themselves. But from 
unquestionable historic sources, we learn how many 
and how marked were the modifications introduced, 
and to all appearance divinely sanctioned. Indeed 
the great truth embodied in this service, was too vital 
to be cumbered with unyielding forms, and for its 
very protection was allowed a power of free adapta- 
tion. All that was truly essential in it was thus 
strengthened, rather than weakened. 

Had the Church of Christ in past ages only pon- 
dered this precedent more fully, what cruel contests 
over the mere modes of her Christian ordinances, 
might she have been spared. And were it even now 
more pondered, what bitter bigotry might be abated. 
No charge concerning any ordinance, can surely ever 
compete with words like these — " This is my com- 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 



179 



mandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved 
you ! 

As the service was first observed, the two things 
to be made prominent were these — protection from 
death, and departure from Egypt. But once safe in 
the Land, there followed an expansion of its mean- 
ing, requiring to be duly marked. No longer need- 
ing to be eaten in haste, it became a prolonged and 
restful service. No longer looking to the future, but 
to the past, and what God had wrought, it was fitting 
to intermingle it with song after song of praise. 
How precious from such continuous use are those 
six Psalms,* which end with one more precious than 
all, because sung by Jesus, before He went forth to 
suffer. How must the holy Hymn have swelled 
upon His lips, as He sang — " I shall not die, but live, 
and declare the works of the Lord " — " God is the 
Lord which hath showed us light ; bind the sacrifice 
with cords even unto the horns of the altar." f 

But by far the most striking change was the intro- 
duction of the wine, of which the very poorest in the 
land was to drink at least four cups, in the course of 

* Pss. cxiii.-cxviii. — These Psalms, called the Egyptian Hallel, 
or the great Hallel, were appointed to be sung eighteen times in 
the year. " On the feast of the Passover, the hallel was so di- 
vided, that Pss. cxiii. and cxiv. were sung before the meal, be- 
fore taking the second festal cup ; Pss. cxv-cxviii., after the 
meal, after filling the fourth cup." — Dr. Moll's Introduction to 
the Psalms, Langes Coin., p. 13. 

f Ps. cxviii. 17, 27. 



!8o THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

the meal.* The blood which at first was sprinkled 
upon their doors, was subsequently poured out at the 
altar by the Priest ; but that it might not fail of its 
commemoration at the feast, wine, the symbol of 
social joy, was permitted to represent it ; thus fitly- 
marking the advance from protection without, to life 
and joy within. And thus was made ready in its 
completeness, the symbol which the Lord Jesus used 
when He took the cup after supper, saying, "This 
cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed 
for you." f 

In tracing this chief Feast of the old Covenant, on 
to this " new testament," and viewing it as there ful- 
filled, we find not mere instruction, but truth of the 
most vital kind. As in so many previous lessons, it 
is still Jesus and the Resurrection that are here pro 
claimed ; but now in an entirely new aspect. We 
saw in Jordan, a symbol of Christ's death, through 
which we rise into His life. In the Land of Promise 
we saw a symbol of His fulness, into which we 
rise. But in the Passover, we begin to see how it is 
that He rises in us. The Lord Jesus is that corn of 
wheat that having fallen into the ground and died, is 
here seen springing up again, no more " abiding alone," 

* " There is no mention of wine in connection with the Pass- 
over in the Pentateuch ; but the Mishna strictly enjoins that there 
should never be less than four cups of it provided, at the paschal 
meal, even of the poorest Israelite." — Smith's Dictionary of the 
Bible. 

t Luke xxii. 20. 



THE PASSOVER IN CAXAAX. ^i 

but " bringing forth much fruit " in all those many 
lives that make up the Church as His Body. 

We enter here upon holy ground — upon one of the 
profoundest mysteries of the Gospel, which even as 
taught by the Lord Jesus, gave rise to misunder- 
standing, and offence, and the turning back of many ; 
but which is all the more precious to those who know 
that He " has the words of eternal life." 

While it is impossible to separate this subject from 
that of the Lord's Supper, it is most needful to draw 
one clear line of distinction. " The spiritual verity 
which underlies the ordinance " is not indissolubly 
connected with it. The Passover was by no means 
the symbol of another symbol, but of a great Reality. 
Gliding as one ordinance did into the other, it was 
the same truth which, taught first in the ceremony 
of the Law, was to find its highest and richest expres- 
sion in the Church's celebration. . For closely as it 
pleased the Lord to connect the substance and the 
symbol, He has not limited 'the one by the other. The 
same wisdom that appointed an outward form for the 
spiritual truth, that we might have every help, pro- 
vided against any possible hindrance, by giving that 
truth a life that was dependent upon no form. 

The safeguard against any such confounding of 
things that differ, is set very clearly in the Scriptures. 
St. John in his Gospel gives us the inner aspect of 
this truth, as taught by Christ in His wonderful 
words about His flesh and blood, and then is utterly 



I( 32 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

silent respecting the institution of the Supper, — leav- 
ing the other Evangelists to give the corresponding 
outward aspect. Precisely as elsewhere, it is the 
New Birth which He presents, and not the corre- 
sponding rite of Baptism. It is the more needful 
to draw this distinction, since there is great reason to 
fear, that not a few Christians have been robbed of 
one of the most precious presentations of Truth, by 
falsely connecting it with Sacramentarianism. On 
the other hand, it seems not a little singular that 
profoundly spiritual as is this truth, the cry of Mate- 
rialism has been so often raised against it. Plainly 
in the case of the Jews, who first charged Christ with 
such a meaning, it was their own materialism which 
led to their utter misapprehension of that which 
could only be spiritually discerned. 

The significance of the Passover (and much more 
the Lord's Supper) can not possibly be stinted to a 
memorial service. Some present participation is very 
plainly implied, while the starting-point is that of a 
grateful remembrance. "It is a night to be much 
observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the 
land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord to be 
observed of all the children of Israel in their genera- 
tions." But if the observance of this service forever, 
was simply to keep the past in remembrance, there 
was no significance in its chief symbol. With the 
blood upon their doors, they ate of the Passover 
Lamb. Even in Egypt, they were shown at once, 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 183 

that there was to be an inward appropriation of their 
sacrifice. That which had saved from death, was also 
to impart to them life and strength ; and as already 
stated, this idea would be still further developed 
upon the subsequent introduction of the wine. So 
likewise in the Supper, the remembrance is made the 
basis of other blessings, as it also furnishes the chief 
ground of obligation — " This do in remembrance of 
me." First of all, the Lord would have us turn our 
eyes to the broken body, and the shed blood. Not 
even in heaven are we to cease from this remem- 
brance ; for there indeed we shall come still more 
clearly to the recognition of His death. In the midst 
of the Throne we shall see " a Lamb as it had been 
slain/* and the new song of heaven will open with 
the dear familiar words of many an old song on 
earth, — " Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
God by Thy blood ;" while the chorus of ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand will repeat it, — " WORTHY 
is the Lamb that was slain."* 

But remembrance is not to be repetition. We are 
to recall the great salvation, rather than to reclaim 
it, and thus to reassure our hearts before God. Christ 
has no need to offer Himself often, since He has 
offered one sacrifice of sins forever ; and they whose 
sins and iniquities He remembers no more, can have 
now no more conscience of those sins, the one remis- 
sion of which is as sure as the one offering.^ Only 

* Rev. v. 6-12. t Heb. x. 18. 



!£>4 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

once do we keep our Passover in Egypt, with the 
blood sprinkled upon our doors. There was never 
indeed but one Passover ; and after that it was the 
Feast of the Passover. 

What then is our present privilege in this remem- 
brance — our participation of Christ ? Is it real, or 
only ideal ? Is the cup a testimony, or a Testament? 
And if He indeed gives aught, or we receive aught, 
what is it, and in what manner is it given and re- 
ceived ? The Scriptures make answer, that Christ our 
Passover gives us Himself — that is, He gives His 
entire being — gives us His Spirit ; , and gives us also, 
"His flcsJi and His blood." 

But here we find ourselves touching upon other 
truths, which must be accepted as preliminary to this, 
and to which the Scriptures give no uncertain testi- 
mony. First among these is the new relation, estab- 
lished by Christ, between matter and spirit, which is 
the very significance of the Incarnation. " The Word 
was made FLESH." Next, but closely linked with 
this, is the glorification of Christ's human body ; and 
then as the result of this, the final glorifying of our 
own. These are not speculations, else were the Scrip- 
tures silent respecting them ; and the reasoning which 
recoils from them, ends consistently in the refusal 
to confess, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, 
in any true sense. Indeed it is to be seriously 
questioned if the doctrine of the Incarnation itself be 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 185 

generally and fully received in our day — if many have 
not drifted into a sort of Gnosticism, with its dual- 
ism, and docetism. 

When the chasm between the Divine and human 
was to be filled, the first step in the great mystery, 
whose completion was to be " Christ in you, the hope 
of glory," was this — " Who was manifested in the 
flesh." Coming into the world He saith — " A body hast 
Thou prepared me." That body, formed by the over- 
shadowing of the Highest, was a holy thing, and 
therefore having in it " the power of an endless life." 
It had no need for itself to pay by death the wages 
of sin. No man took that life from Jesus — He laid it 
down of Himself — laid it down that He might take it 
again.* Yet it was not possible for Him to be holden 
of the bands of death, nor did God suffer His Holy 
One to see corruption. The Scriptures put this 
point beyond all dispute, by repeated assertions.f 
" He whom God raised again saw no corruption " — 
" Neither did His flesh see corruption ; " and the pre- 
cious blood of Christ is especially declared not to be a 
corruptible thing.J The resurrection from the dead 
declared Him to be the Son of God with power, " ac- 
cording to the Spirit 'of holiness" It was a Body still, 
with flesh and bones, that might be seen and handled, 



* John x. 17, 18. f Cf. Acts ii. 27-31 and xiii. 34-37. 

\ I Pet. i. 18, 19. 



1 86 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

and yet moving with all the freedom of a Spirit — 
" showing Himself alive by many infallible proofs."* 
Had there been no deeper meaning in the Resurrec- 
tion than an evidence, the manifestation in the flesh 
might have ended here, and the body have been put 
away, when He ascended up where He was before. 
But the blessed mystery goes further — " Was received 
up into glory." Into what glory let the " Light from 
heaven at midday, above the brightness of the sun," 
that blinded Saul of Tarsus, while it answered, " I 
am Jesus," tell us ; even as the Face, that had once 
already " shone as the sun," had given token. It 



* " The glorified body of Christ was not altered as regards its 
fundamental components ; it was the same body, with the marks of 
the nails and the wound in its side, but in a new spiritual form of 
existence, and therefore standing tinder other laws. It therefore 
appears until the ascension, when its transformation was com- 
pleted — as an elementary, earthly, material body ; but its ele- 
ments are no longer bound by space, and it can go here or there, 
make itself visible or invisible — in fact, shape itself outwardly ac- 
cording to the internal will. And this is possible, because the body 
is spiritualized through and through ; it has become an ade- 
quate expression of the spirit and its willing instrument. The 
body no longer opposes its own laws (of space, gravitation, mo- 
tion, etc.,) to the volitions of the spirit ; it does not hinder nor 
limit them, but implicitly obeys. All strife is at an end. If the 
spirit will to transport itself to any place, it can do so together 
with the body ; the body no longer hinders it, for it is saturated 
with vital force and immortality. This is what the Scriptures (i 
Cor. xv. 44-46) call a spiritual body (c£)[ia nvevfiaTiKuv), in con- 
tradistinction to the "natural body" (ifjvxticbv). — Christlieb's 
Modern Doubt a?id Christian Belief, pp. 475-6, (Am. Ed.) 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 



1 8/ 



was evidently the whole being of the Lord, in that 
triple division which the Scripture sanctions — of spirit, 
soul, and body — that rose from the dead, ascended, 
and was glorified. But this last Adam being " a 
quickening Spirit," is the great Fountain-Head of all 
renewed being. Being glorified, He shed forth His 
Holy Spirit, that He might quicken first our spirits, 
and then our mortal bodies also. As it was His 
whole being that was glorified, so is it plainly our 
whole being that is to be glorified together with 
Him* — even as it is our "whole spirit and soul and 
body," which are to be " preserved blameless unto 
His coming." 

And now we advance to the great revelation, that 
this work is not only wrought by Him, but through 
His " giving us Himself as the Bread of Life?' He 
has taught us that there in His glorified Being a 
blessed power of imparting itself, in a real communi- 
cation of both spiritual and bodily life. We surely 
can not keep the Feast — Christ our Passover sacrificed 
for us — with any spiritual intelligence, unless we 
receive in simple faith, those wonderful words in 
which He has taught us — " He that eateth Me, even 
He shall live by meJ'f The many words which the 
Lord Jesus used in that most memorable discourse, 
are not so much restatements, as constant advances, 
in the unfolding of the truth. 

First of all He taught— " I am that Bread of life." 
* Cf. Roman viii. 17 and 23. t John vi. 57. 



188 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

They who had eaten the manna, died ; — for the 
manna had no life — but this was living Bread ; and 
he who should eat, should live forever. Not only 
should have now everlasting life, in his renewed 
spirit, but Jesus would also raise him up, in body, at 
the last day* 

" I am that Bread of life." It is to His own Person, 
that Jesus draws our eyes in His promise, " that every 
one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him!' shall 
have everlasting life, and be raised up again at the 
last day. 

But He had further truth to teach. It was not only 
of His giving us His Spirit that He spoke, but " the 
Bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give 
for the life of the world. "f A hard saying indeed to' 

* " The natural import of the phrase 'last day' restricts this 
necessarily to the bodily resurrection. Every application of the 
expression to the merely spiritual ministry of Christ would make 
it a mere repetition of the ' eternal life.'" — Ohhauscn on John 
vL 40. 

t See Dean Alford's Greek Testament, for a deeply interest- 
ing note on John vi. 51, in which he " at once rejects all meta- 
phorical and side-interpretations, as, that the teaching of Christ 
is the Bread, and to be taught by Him is feeding upon it (so 
Grotius and the modern rationalists) : that the divine Nature of 
Christ, or His sending of the Holy Spirit, or His whole life of 
doin% good on earth, can be meant : all such have against them 
the plain sense of the words, which, as Stier observes, are very 
simple ordinary words His Flesh is the glorified sub- 
stance of His Resurrection Body, now at the right hand of 
God .... He has given His flesh for the life of the world 
(row Kocfiov). The very existence of all the created world is owing 
to, and held together by that Resurrection Body of the Lord." 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 



189 



listen to — but what if they should see the Son of 
Man ascend up where He was before ?* What if He 
proved that His sacred flesh was worthy of the pres- 
ence of God, and subject to no earthly conditions ? It 
was then His flesh, in its resurrection glory, of which 
He spoke, when the Body once broken should become 
living, life-giving Bread. 

But He had still another gift — His blood — of which 
He next began to speak. " Except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have 

no life in you He that eateth my flesh, and 

drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him."f 



* " The Lord signifies and promises here a future removal of 
the offence, a subsequent better knowledge, when His present 
earthly manifestation should be finally withdrawn just as in Ch. 

viii. 28 Then will it be disclosed to you that, and in what 

way My human corporeity, become heavenly and glorified, ?nay 
be given to be eaten and to be drunk" — " Stier's Words of the 
Lord Jesus," Vol V., pp. 210-21 1. 

t John vi. 53-56. Jesus represents Himself as the quickener of 
the whole man, the spiritual quickening prevailing up to ver. 50, 
while from v. 51 the idea which lies at the foundation of the Holy 
Supper — that the glorified corporeity of Christ sanctifies and glo- 
rifies ours also — comes out in stronger relief. . . . With the eating 
and drinking of the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, are con- 
nected everlasting life, abiding in Christ, and living forever, i. e., 
the sublimest effects which the Redeemer proposed in general to 
call forth The life and being of Christ is an all-penetrat- 
ing, sanctifying, and glorifying power ; the union of man with it 
in all three departments of his being is internal, real, essential." 
— Olshausen s Biblical Com., Vol. II., p. 418. See also, the same, 
for the view of the early Fathers, and also Luther's, concerning 
the germ of the resurrection body. 



190 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



We enter here a path which, however unfamiliar to 
modern thought, discloses to the spiritual eye a glo- 
rious vista up to the very treasure-house of Truth — a 
path where Saint and Scholar have walked side by 
side, with reverent tread — where we meet in their 
holy meditations, such men as Chrysostom, and Cal- 
vin, and Bengel, and Stier.* What a distance from 
their apostolic " faith in His blood " to that reason- 
ing which sees in it at best a figure.f 

The blood of beasts, shed for so many years, what- 
ever the value assigned it for an atonement under 
the Old Covenant, was but a figure. Not so when 
Jesus said — " This is My blood of the New Testa- 
ment." " The blood of the everlasting Covenant " 
was a true thing. As has been said, " the unintelligent 
horror of the blood, which unbelief in the truth of God 

* While referring freely in these notes to Scholars who have 
taken the view here presented, I feel bound to add that my own 
convictions were formed solely from the study of the Word. It was 
not merely a surprise, but an astonishment to meet with such 
confirmation. Most heartily can I re-echo the words of the 
saintly Bengel, " I shall indeed rejoice if by means of the things 
which I have stated, any occasion will be afforded for increasing 
the love and knowledge of our Redeemer, who has paid the price 
of His blood for us." 

t " The proper consideration of Christ's blood is sparingly intro- 
duced, and many have straightway recourse to a figure, where- 
by they understand under this word, blood, either the whole 
merit of Christ, or His life, i. e., the living principle, or soul." 
— See Bengel's Gnomon, Vol. IV., Clark's Ed., where he devotes 
fifteen pages (474-488) to a subject on which he once meditated 
a Treatise. 



THE PASSOVER IN CAXAAN. 191 

in the Old Testament has created, is here done away 
in the centre of the Christian worship, in this most 
precious bond of love between Christ and His own."* 
As has been already seen, we need here to keep 
steadily in view the glorification of the entire being 
of Jesus. The blood was no unimportant part of that 
being — for " the life of the flesh is in the blood. "f 
Besides, be it repeated, we are told in express words, 
that we were " not redeemed with corruptible things, 
but with the precious blood of Christ "J — confirming the 
truth, that He whom God raised up saw no corrup- 
tion. Why then should the faith that follows the 
ascending body of Jesus into Heaven, falter when it 
learns that the blood had its own entrance also ? In 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, we are told how the High 
Priest, once every year, entered into the holiest, not 
without blood ; and then how Christ having come, 
entered in once into the Holy Place, by His own- 
blood. § This was " the better sacrifice " that purified 

* Stier, t Lev. xvii. 11. % 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. 

§ Heb. ix. 12. " 'Christ entered into the sanctuary by His 
own blood ; not merely after the blood was shed, and by the 
force of its being - shed, nor with the blood taken back into the 
body, but BY the blood : therefore, this Priest Himself carried 
into the sanctuary His own blood, separately from his body.' . . . ., 
(Chrysostom Horn. 33, on Heb. xiii.) : The actual economy of the 
suffering was without, I say without ; but the blood was carried 
up INTO heaven. You observe that we are partakers of the 
blood that was carried into the Sanctuary — the true Sanctuary — 
the blood of the Sacrifice in which He alone, the High Priest 
delighted." — BengePs Gnomon, p. 476-7. — In the same passage 



IQ2 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

" the heavenly things themselves." This was " the 
blood of His cross " with which He made peace. Our 
own confidence to enter into the Holiest, we are fur- 
ther told, is in that blood.* Nor need it surprise 
us when we are warned a little further on, of the sore 
punishment of which they are worthy, who " count 
the blood of the covenant an unholy thing."t 

As has been said by Bengel,} " The blood itself 
shed, not the shedding of the blood, is the ransom, the 
price of eternal redemption. That price paid to God, 
remains paid, without being restored to the body of 
the Redeemer. The redemption is eternal; the 
value of the price is eternal, just as if the Re- 
deemer hung on the cross daily, and expired daily 
for us. In His death there was the power of a life 
that was not to be dissolved. In His life there is the 
value of His death, which is perpetuaC 

One can but note the care with which distinct 
mention is made by the Lord Jesus, of His flesh, 
and of His blood ; as afterwards at the last Supper, 
He gave the separate emblems — the bread, of His 
body, and the wine, of His blood. Thus they are 
also mentioned by St. Paul.§ So once more in He- 
brews, where we are told of the realities of heaven, to 

Be7gel^o~quotes from Calvin, as saying, <« Christ carried His 
own blood into the heavenly Sanctuary to make atonement for 
the sins of the world." 

*Heb.x.l 9 . tHeb.x.29. 

\ Gnomon, Vol. IV., p. 479- § l Cor ' xL 24 ' 2S ' 



- 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 



1 93 



which we have now come — after the mention of " in- 
numerable angels," of " the festive assembly and 
Church of the First-born," and " God the Judge of 
all," and " the Spirits of just men made perfect," 
there are also added — " Jesus the Mediator " of the 
new Covenant, AND the blood of sprinkling " that 
speaketh better things than that of Abel." * 

But to follow the teaching of Jesus to its close. 
He tells us plainly, that He is not using words as 
figures, but as names of real things. " My flesh is 
true meat — My blood is true drink." f And it is 
now no longer upon His giving this food for the life 
of the world that He dwells ; but upon our eating 
and drinking, which are repeated again and again. 
The giving was His one act — the receiving our con- 
stantly renewed act. And now at last, after Jesus 
had for the first time foretold His Ascension, He 
explains, that it was not mere flesh of which He had 
been speaking — not the carnal thing that was in their 
thoughts — "the flesh profiteth nothing" — but of 
"the Spirit that quickeneth " — (words which the 

* Heb. xii. 24. 

f "John vi. 55, aTiTjdfc is not % dlridivrj, nor is the sense, * My 
flesh is the true meat,' etc., but My flesh is true meat, i. e., 
really to be eaten, which they doubted. Thus uTirjOdg is a gloss 
which falls short of the depth of the adjective. This verse is de- 
cisive against all explaining away, or metaphorizing the passage. 
Food and drink are not here mere metaphors ; — rather are our 
common material food and drink mere shadows and imperfect 
types of this only real reception of refreshment and nourishment 
into the being." — Dean Alford's Greek Testament, Vcl. I. p., 718. 

9 



194 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



Apostle Peter must have had in mind, when he spoke 
of Christ as being put to death in the flesh, but 
quickened by the Spirit). And then all is summed 
up in the pregnant saying — " The words that I speak 
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." What 
words? — unless chiefly those upon which He had 
rested such a weight — the words so often repeated — 
" My flesh — My blood !" These should prove " true 
meat, true drink," because also, when He had as- 
cended, " Spirit, and Life."* Recalling no word 
that He had said already, He only rescued His pearls 
from the swine, who were trampling them under their 
feet. And still some believed not. How indeed 
should they ? It was hard to receive His witness 
when He only told of earthly things. That a liv- 
ing man could be born again — born from above — ■ 
by being born of water and of the Spirit, was a strange 
thing to their thought. And yet they needed not to 
marvel, if only they had marked the mystery of the 
wind, that cometh and goeth. But how then should 
they believe Him now, when He told them of One 

* Dean Alford says upon John vi. 63 : " He is explaining the 
life-giving principle of which He had been before speaking — 
He does not say ; My Flesh profiteth nothing,' but ' the flesh/ 
To make Him say this is to make Him contradict His own words 
in verse 51 : ru fiqfi. & tyw leXuTitjna — viz., the words fiov tt/v adpKa 
and fiov to alfia, above. They are, nvevfia and Wn '■ — spirit, not 
flesh only : — living food, not carnal and perishable. This mean- 
ing has been missed by almost all commentators. Stier upholds 
it, iv. 281 (2d ed.) ; and it seems to me beyond question the right 
one. — The Greek Testament, I. 769. 



THE PASSOVER IN CAXAAX. 



195 



who ascended into heaven, to be the Bread of this 
new life. 

And what is our own need to marvel, if we only 
reverently ponder the mystery of our daily bread. 
We eat it — but how little even Science knows of 
that great secret. Hoiv is it that the grain first grows 
from crudest elements ? How is it that it is changed 
into the tender tissue, the tense sinew, and the warm 
coursing blood ? We know it only as a fact. The 
bounteous table is not spread for us to analyze, but 
to enjoy. 

Enough then, that in spiritual as in natural things, 
" we know and are sure," that we are invited to feast 
upon " true meat, and true drink ;" that we eat of 
Bread ' that strengtheneth our heart,' and drink of 
' wine that maketh it glad.' Who can even describe 
the cheer and comfort that compass the frame, and 
that pervading sense of speedy strength, that comes 
through common sustenance ? How then set forth the 
blessedness of the Heavenly Banquet — the strength 
and sweetness of the shedding abroad of the Holy 
Spirit in our hearts — the steady bracing of the whole 
being — the poising of all its powers — or yet its brim- 
ming in the bewilderment of gladness, as this " best 
wine goeth down sweetly ! " * We know not hozv, but 
we know and are sure by every inner sense that He has 
given us, that as He feeds us thus — it is His Spirit 
penetrating our spirit, His soul possessing our soul, 

* Cant. vii. 9. 



I96 THE FULNESS CF BLESSING. 

till these mortal bodies feel the quickening Spirit 
that dwelleth in us, and thrill with the stirring of 
that new life, in which they shall be raised up at the 
last day. Even thus, O Great High Priest, King of 
Righteousness, and King of Peace, dost thou come 
forth to meet and bless Thy servants, with Thy 
Bread and Wine ! 

And so the mystery is made known — dimly to rea- 
son, but how brightly to Faith, that " Christ loved 
the Church, and gave Himself for it " — that when it 
was not good for Him to be alone, the deep sleep fell 
upon Him, and the Church found His death to be 
her life. Therefore because it is " His own flesh " — 
because "we are members of His body, of His flesh, 
and of His bones," " He nourisheth and cherisheth 
it." Thrice happy Church, thus fed by her Beloved 
— thus beholding His glory, and so changed into the 
same image from glory to glory ; in such a wise that 
at last this body of our lowliness shall be conformed 
to the Body of His Glory ! 

And so it is, indeed, no longer as in Egypt, that we 
now keep the Passover. The Birth feast is changed 
into a Marriage Feast, and the first miracle at Cana 
is the perpetual miracle of the loving and believing 
heart, in which life cleanses, and love purifies. For 
Christ's cleansing of His Church, is not after the 
manner of the purifying of the Jews — a washing of 
water without, to leave the inner man unchanged. 
" The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," as it is 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. igy 

first without, is then within ;* the cleansing of the 
Wine that searches and yet heals ; that bringing into 
our being a vigor not its own, exalts all our powers 
to the partaking of His divine nature, and fills us 
with the joy of the Lord. 

And here let it be again distinctly stated, that such 
blessing as this comes through faith, and not through 
any form. The Lord Jesus in teaching the great 
truth, made known but one condition — believi?ig on 
Him. When He afterwards added His ordinance it 
was based upon this truth — not the truth upon the 
ordinance. And yet as certainly as He taught the 
truth, He appointed the form. As surely as He gave 
His very flesh and very blood, to be our meat and 
drink — He also gave the bread and wine, to be their 
tokens. One may well fear lest parted from its strik- 
ing symbol, the spiritual substance may become, even 
to the sincere, a shadowy blessing faintly and vaguely 
apprehended. 

The Lord Jesus surely makes every such remem- 
brance of Him the occasion of His special manifesta- 
tion. " The cup of blessing which we bless — is it not 
the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread 



* " A double benefit becomes ours by the blood of Christ, name- 
ly : I. Deliveraiice from the guilt of sin ; II. The gift of the new 
powers of life which are subsequently exercised in good works. 
The former is called justification by the blood of Jesus Christ : 
and the latter is obtained by the man who eats the flesh of Christ, 
and drinks His blood ; John V\."—Bengel's Gnomon— on Heb. 
xii. 24. 



198 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



which we break — is it not the communion of the 

body of Christ ?"* And while thus intensifying our 

faith in this vital union with our Lord, we at the 

same time confirm our fellowship with one another — 

" We being many are one body, for we are all partakers 

of that one bread." \ Every supper of the Lord should 

also be a feast of Charity. Finally, it is the Church's 

testimony to a Christless world. " As often as ye eat 

this bread, and drink this cup, ye do proclaim the 

Lord's death till He come." % 

Yet let us deeply ponder that which must follow, 

when in any way the eye of Faith has become so dim 

as not to discern the Lord's body, — " For this cause 

many are weak and sickly among you, and many 

sleep !" 

Till He Come. Only a little longer shall we keep 

• 

* 1 Cor. x. 16. 

" According to the Scripture (John vi.) the Lord was to be in 
us and with us also in flesh and blood after His ascension ; yes, 
then first truly so. His heavenly flesh and blood pervaded by 
spirit, and which have become spirit and life, these are the 
true ' mediating organs ' of that fellowship which is as really 
bodily as spiritual ; and the bread and the wine are the mediat- 
ing symbols of this in the second degree. Was there not for the 
Church of the Lord an actual reception of His flesh and blood pro- 
vided, it could have ?io life in itself, it never would be or could 
be His Church, that is, His body. If this reception was not at 
the same time (not indeed exclusively, but especially) mediated by 
an external, earthly corporeal element, the Church of the New 
Testament would have no Sacrament." — Stier^s Words of the 
Lord Jesus, vii. 105. 

t 1 Cor. x. 17. \ 1 Cor. xi. 26. 



THE PASSOVER IN CANAAN. 



I 99 



this Feast ; for soon the Holy Supper of our Lord 
will become the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We 
do not even rightly remember His dying, unless we 
are looking for that blessed Hope. How passing 
sweet His promise — " Until / drink it NEW with you 
in my Father's kingdom !" " When we become as 
He is, then will He be again as we are ; He will eat 
and drink with us the new fruits of the new world in 
the fellowship of an eternal enjoyment of the renova- 
ted creation of the Father." * 



* Rudolph Stier. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE 

LAND. 

* ' \ nd the manna ceased on the morrow 
*y after they had eaten of the new corn 
of the land; neither had the children of 
Israel manna any more; but they did eat 
of the fruit of the land of canaan that 

YEAR."* — (Josh. V. 12.) 

The most marked providence of the forty years in 
the wilderness, was the manna. It was the time of 
man's provocation — yet such was the compassion of 
God, that he " did eat angels' food."f For forty 
years, was God grieved with Israel, yet for forty 
years, day by day, He gave them their bread from 
heaven. But now occurs a great change. The prom- 
ise of God is fulfilled, that in this land they should 
eat bread, without scarceness. 

The lessons contained in this change, are not the 
least in value of the many which crowd the fifth 
chapter of Joshua — making it like the cluster of the 

* " The produce of the same year ; t. e. t the new corn." — Keil 
and Dclitzsch* 
t Ps. lxxviii. 25. 
(200) 



THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 2 0I 

grapes of Eshcol. Among those lessons, the most 
obvious upon the face of the history are these. The 
cessation of the manna, marks a return from correc- 
tion to comfort — from the extraordinary to the ordi- 
nary — from the direct provision of God, to His bless- 
ing upon their own efforts — yet all in such a way, as 
to indicate not less, but more, of His goodness. 

But to revert to the history of the manna. In Egypt 
it was the abuse of God's bounty, that they " sat by 
the flesh pots, and did eat bread to the full."* The 
satisfaction of the lower wants of our being, though a 
part of the Creator's design, is never to become an 
object in life. Very good as the means which it was 
appointed to be — as an end, it is very evil. " Let us 
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," is the lowest 
possible valuation of life. The tendency of such a full 
supply, unbalanced by higher pursuits, is always to 
degrade the soul, to animalize the being, and to give 
the body an ascendancy over the spirit, instead of 
keeping it in subjection. Hence excessive fertility 
nearly always proves a curse. 

But the food of Egypt was not only abundant, but 
gross and stimulating. Bodily appetite had a fearful 
dominion over the childhood of Israel. The " leeks 
and cucumbers " seem to have left a stronger impres- 
sion on their memories, than the ten plagues and the 
Red Sea. Their murmuring for bread was their first 
sin. In the provision which the Lord graciously 

* Exodus xvi. 3. 

9* 



202 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

made for their need, He introduced a wise discipline 
He could still have given them fulness of bread ; but 
it was far better for them for a time to be trained 
to abstinence, and to utmost moderation. He gave 
them, therefore, but one sort of food, and that the 
lightest. The deep design of this was explained to 
them by Moses : — " He humbled thee, and suffered 
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou 
knewest not, neither did thy fathers know ; that He 
might make thee know that man doth not live 
by bread only, but by every word that proceed- 
eth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live."* 
In a profound significance, stretching far beyond their 
earlier sense, Christ used the last of these words in 
His own hunger. His first temptation was Israel's 
first, as well as our first and lowest. But even their 
weak understanding must have grasped a part of the 
meaning of Moses — Bread was not the chief necessity 
of life, and hunger was comparatively a small evil. 
They must be trained to know the needs, and the 
supplies, of soul life, and spirit life. 

When Israel came out of Egypt, their life was lit- 
tle more than such as fish, and onions, and garlic 
could feed — little more than an animal life. It was 
not the plan of God to lead His people into perma- 
nent distress and poverty. He had promised them a 
land, full of all good things, where they should eat 
bread without scarceness. But for the present^ scarce- 

* Deut. viii. 3. 



THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 



203 



ness of bread was the needful corrective. How hard 
that discipline was for them, and how necessary, we 
see soon afterwards, when that whole camp forgot the 
dignity of freedom and of manhood, and like so many 
spoiled children, absolutely cried aloud, because they 
did not like the food which God had given them.* It 
was needful to subdue such lust before He could pro- 
ceed with their moral culture. 

And then He fed them by other words out of His 
mouth. All His commands, and all His ways, were 
such words, and by every one was their being nour- 
ished and developed. He fed them by the very 
sublimity of their mountain path, as they marched 
downward to Sinai. By each grand form, and by 
each lovely tint, He fed both the strength and the 
tenderness of their nature. By all the routine of the 
journey, by all the closer companionships of lives set 
free from servitude, He fed them. By all the awe 
and terror of Sinai, and most of all by His holy Law, 
He fed them, and made them live. And they grew. 
Mental and moral manhood were developed. Even 
in their wanderings, when He had to give them so 
largely the bread of adversity, and the waters of 
affliction, they still grew ; and most of all, in readiness 
of soul, to receive more real blessing from God. And 
how over Jordan, life was another thing for them. , 
They had been lifted up in the scale of being. The 
correction had wrought out its purpose, and they 

* See Numbers xi. 4. 



2 04 THE FULXESS OF BLESSIXG. 

could again be trusted with the good things of earth. 
So the manna ceased, and the corn and all the fruit- 
of Canaan were theirs. They had learned their 
lesson, that the life was; more than meat. And now 
that they were ready for it, God gave them all that 
was needed to sustain such a life. 

How easily one can picture the gathering of the 
families of Israel to their first repast, the day after 
the manna ceased — to partake, with an almost child- 
like pleasure, oi the good things so long promised. 
And yet how all greediness would be held in check, by 
their reverent sense of God's own gifts. What thanks- 
givings must have gone up that day from the tables 
in the Camp of Gilgal ! 

The training of His people of old in this manner, is 
the pattern from which God still works, in His loving- 
correction. Our outward bread is the natural symbol 
of all that can be called food in a wider sense ; of all 
that comes to nourish up the life of our complex be- 
ing — to develop it, and to strengthen it — embracing 
all that in this outward creation yields support of any 
kind to our nature — all the manifold providences of 
God, and events of life — all the influences of our fellow- 
beings, and all that descends to us from God out of 
heaven. 

It is a primary law of all organic life that it must 
be i'cd: and the higher it is, from the more sources 
must its supplies be sought. He who fixed these 
laws in our being, has at the same time created theii 



THE XEJV CORN AXD FRUIT OF THE LAXD. 205 

supplies, and given us the instincts to seek them. 
So long as these instincts are natural and healthy, all 
that they desire must be good. 

We may apply this to the manifold blessings of 
life — Health is good; Wealth is good; Happiness is 
good ; and on the contrary, disease, poverty, and 
grief, are all in themselves evils, and the derange- 
ments of God's highest plan. But even the best things, 
even things the most needful, are good for us only 
when we are prepared to use them rightly. And as 
we take away from the sick child much of the food 
which was previously good, and do not allow his ap- 
petite to have its way, so God is compelled to take 
away from the being disordered by sin, many of His 
best gifts, since they would only increase the evil. 

In this process by which He restores us, we are 
bound to co-operate. We must accept, not only 
with submission, but with sweetness, the medicine 
instead of food, the little instead of the much. So 
blessings suffer for the time a reversal. Thus poverty 
may be the present blessing, and God choose the 
poor of this world, to make them only rich in faith 
?ww — but in the return to the true estimate of things, 
heirs of a kingdom hereafter. Adversity may thus be 
the present blessing, but not the highest and truest — 
Prosperity is that. Light food and scanty, are these 
limitations of our being, pressing us on every hand. 

But while we accept this humbling, and suffering 
of hunger, which come if need be — and how common 



2o6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

is that need — we ought not to be content with their 
continuance beyond it. We need to distinguish in 
the work of God upon us, very carefully, between 
that which is directly progressive, and that which is 
remedial. From a neglect of this, have sprung the 
evils of asceticism, and the extremes of Puritanism. 
The sick man, who has found his medicine and spare 
diet agree with his weakness, does well to recom- 
mend them to the weak ; but it would be quite another 
thing, to persuade the healthy and strong to adopt 
the same regimen. 

" The Giving God " desires ever to give us His 
best ; but that best is something altogether relative 
to our state. It is not judgment, but mercy rejoicing 
against judgment, that when man has broken the 
commandments, makes the flaming sword turn every 
way, to keep the way of the tree of life. But it is Love, 
that, when man is so blessed as to keep these com- 
mandments, gives him again the " right to the tree 
of life." Until we have the grace to receive and use 
God's gifts aright, it is better for us to be without 
them ; but far better to be so restored as to safely 
use them — better for us, and better for His glory. 
So, then, when He gives us for our bread a light thing, 
and gives it by measure, we do well to ask Him that 
we may be speedily " humbled," and " proved," and 
" taught," that so we may, like Israel, pass on to richer 
and truer blessings. 

But to pass to another lesson. There was to be no 



THE 1 NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 2 oy 

more an infantile dependence upon the provision of 
God. That bread from heaven had needed no sow- 
ing, no tilling, no reaping : it only asked to be gath- 
ered. Yet He led them not backward, but forward 
in privilege, in ordering that henceforth their supplies 
should bear a proportion to their own energies. Such 
is ever our Father's way with His children — first to 
work for them, and then to make them co-workers 
with Him. In giving us some of His choicest things, 
He absolutely requires this co-operation ; and even 
doubles the value of His gifts, by the training and 
development of all our powers. 

It is an utter mistake, therefore, to regard the Lord 
as any less the Giver, for giving to us through our 
own selves, as instruments. He may be all the more 
working for us, and blessing us, when He sets His 
gifts at a little remove from us, and even with many 
intervening obstacles. 

Again, another kindred lesson here shadowed forth 
is this. It may seem paradoxical, but it is simply a 
matter of experience, that as our lives become more 
spiritual, they also become more natural, and there is 
less seemingly of the extraordinary about them. 

But in this we do indeed see only in part. For 
Law, and Order, are but names which we give to the 
ways of God's working, so far as they have become 
familiar to us. Probably all the works to which we 
give other names, calling them miraculous, and su- 
pernatural, are equally within the range of Law and 



208 THE FULNESS 'OF BLESSING. 

Order, as seen by higher intelligences. Just as the 
native of the Tropics knows some of the laws of water; 
while the savage of another zone knows an added 
law, which completely sets aside the others, and the 
ice-bound river is his easy path, instead of a perilous 
flood. The man of science finds out yet another law, 
and bids this same element carry him swiftly over 
land and sea. 

So, as our spiritual apprehension enlarges, we note 
this change — the ordinary works of God appear more 
extraordinary ; and the extraordinary, more in accord 
with the ordinary. In the latter, the element of mere 
marvel and astonishment fades from our minds, as 
we consider those laws that lie beyond our world, and 
how easy and natural are all things to Omnipotence. 
And in the former case, we come to understand, that 
His simplest handiwork is so full of skill, as to de- 
mand His constant supervision. Such recognition of 
the power, and present working of God in all com- 
mon things, prepares us in the most healthy manner 
for a further insight into His hidden ways. How can 
one who has really confessed his Creator, doubt the 
possibility of any miracle? How can one who has 
watched the daily unfolding of His providences, doubt 
His interposition at any needful point? 

Among the designs of miracles, a chief one seems to 
have been to call the attention of men to God. When 
they fell on their faces and cried, " The Lord He is 
the God," the end was sufficiently answered. A 



THE NEW CORN AX D FRUIT OF THE LAND. 209 

good example of this is the gift of tongues. It was 
all-important to bring the early Church to a clear 
recognition of the power and presence of the Spirit. 
This accomplished, their service ceased, except as 
they might be needed to produce a like effect on 
others. So St. Paul presents the case — " Wherefore 
tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but 
to them that believe not."* 

But again, there are other signs to " follow them 
that believe," in which the object is to restore the 
order disarranged by sin.f The miracles of Christ 
were very largely of this class ; as, for instance, all His 
works of healing. For this there was needed the 
momentary exercise of some new law, after which 
there would be an immediate return to the old laws, 
which had sufficed for their work. 

In the case of the manna, both the above objects 
appear. That barren desert was an abnormal thing, 
not at all in the original perfection of God's works. 
For obvious reasons, He did not give it permanent fer- 
tility ; but for the time, He made good the supply it 

* 1 Cor. xiv. 22. 

t Christlieb, in his admirable volume on " Modern Doubt and 
Christian Belief," after showing that miracles belonged especial- 
ly to " the epoch in which the Church was first founded" claims 
that in the work of missions " miracles should not be entirely want- 
ing — nor are they. We can not, therefore, fully admit the prop- 
osition that no more miracles are performed in our day. In the 
history of modern missions, we find many wonderful occurrences 
which unmistakably remind us of the apostolic a^e." He goes 
on to give several pages of instances — See Lecture V., iii. 



2io THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

should have yielded. Then, also, the other purpose was 
accomplished, that they clearly recognized God as the 
Giver of daily bread. And to those who had learned 
this, the gift of the manna would seem a simple thing, 
by the side of that munificence, which year after 
year brought forth from the rain of heaven, and the 
dust of the earth, the nutritious grain — the figs and 
pomegranates — the olive, with its golden soothing 
oil — the vine, with its purple kindling juice — and 
working on through the mysterious chemistry of ani- 
mal life, made the land flow with milk and honey. 
But for the manna, they might have seen no miracle 
in all this — might have taken it as from Nature, and 
not from God. " There is not, indeed," as has been 
well said, " a miracle on record, that can compete 
with the miracles of Creation and Providence." 

Moreover, it is most mischievous to become ab- 
sorbed with the extraordinary — as happened in the 
Corinthian Church — and to prefer what is striking, to 
the simple and serviceable. Man, as a rule, can bear 
very little of the extraordinary. He is very apt to 
abuse it for some display. 

And now to make these considerations more prac- 
tical. Few persons, probably, pass through a full Chris- 
tian experience, without some special display of the 
Lord's power. Most frequently this occurs at an 
early stage, or else at some subsequent marked 
period of growth, and anxiety is often felt at its 



THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 211 

withdrawal. Perhaps the soul was fed by some 
word of God, that fell clear as a Voice speaking from 
heaven. Perhaps some wondrous vision was spread 
out before the eye. But when this manna ceases, has 
God's bounty ceased ? No, the new corn of the land, 
and all its fruits, are theirs. Only now He would 
have them search the Scriptures. He would have 
them meditate in His law. He would have them even 
wait for the precious fruit of the earth. And if they 
accept this ordering of their lives, they will find their 
souls led on to really richer blessings, for which the 
extraordinary visitation was only meant to prepare 
them. They become more simple, and more spiritual, 
at once. 

Thus does the Master keep His disciples from 
straining their life to an unnatural pitch, where, un- 
able to sustain it, they are nearly sure to break down 
altogether. There are lines of thought and expe- 
rience which it is well for us to be trained to touch at 
times, but to be fastened there, would be the de- 
struction of the soul. 

And the Master Himself is our example here. 
Look at the life of the Lord Jesus. There were great 
crises in it — hours and days that were most extraor- 
dinary. Witness His Baptism, the Temptation, the 
Transfiguration. But as soon as the high occasion 
passes, His life moves on again, simply, and sweetly, 
without any strain. Indeed, notwithstanding all that 



212 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

so widely separates it from other lives, the intense 
naturalness of Jesus, is one of His chief human 
attractions. 

We see this also in the life of Paul. There is no 
assumption, no cant, no attempt to act a part. He is 
real, throughout all the constant changes of his ca- 
reer. How cheerfully he comes down from his third 
heaven, to his thorn in the flesh. How humbly he 
owns his danger of getting exalted above measure. 

It was a choice tribute that was lately rendered to 
a noble Christian woman, that " her natural life was 
so completely Christian, that her Christian life became 
completely natural." In truth, simplicity is a vital 
element in all greatness, most of all in that which is 
spiritual. It measures also very closely that which is 
lovabU. Sanctimoniousness is a widely different 
thing from sanctity. The effort needed to support it 
in all its conventional proprieties, exhausts the re- 
sources of life. The nature is so spent in seeming, 
that it has no strength for being. 

In eating the new corn of the land, there was a re- 
turn to simple, natural ways. They turned from the 
Paschal feast to find their common life crowned with 
bounty. When once Christ has lifted us up to sit in the 
heavenlies, to eat His body, and to drink His blood, 
then He returns to sup also with us. When we have 
seen the slain Lamb in the midst of the Throne, we 
see Christ in all things. He fills and hallows the 
whole sphere of our humanity, so that henceforth we 



THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 



213 



can call nothing unclean. In the most common things 
of life, " sanctified by the word of God and prayer," 
man may eat more than angels' food ; and life in loving 
loyalty to Jesus, may become one long blessed sacra- 
ment. Of more than the broken bread may it be 
said, " Do this in remembrance of Me." 

Every service which He appoints, every pursuit 
which He sanctions, every pleasure which He pro- 
vides — all of these as we take them in His name, and 
for His sake, shall be to us like the corn and fruits of 
Canaan — more abundant and more luscious for all our 
care — and yet His own daily gifts, strengthening and 
refreshing us, and helping us to grow up into Him in 
all things. Bread without scarceness, food in richest 
variety, even the fat of the Land, shall the willing 
and obedient eat ; for it is a high and complex being 
that is to be thus fed. 

Such a view of our ultimate liberty will keep us, 
even in the midst of much present sacrifice and self- 
denial, free from all narrowness of spirit, and especial- 
ly from its worst form, censoriousness. We can not 
always tell, who still needs to be fed with manna, and 
who may eat the fruit of Canaan. The correction 
and training of His children, rest with God alone ; 
and few things are more difficult, than to judge the 
liberty or restraint of others. " Every creature of 
God is good " — This is the broad, true ground of lib- 
erty claimed by an Apostle. Yet practically — for in- 
expediency, for present necessity, for the weakness 



214 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

of others — who so ready as he, to " eat no meat while 
the world standeth." 

" He who is weak eateth herbs." We may pity, 
but not despise him for it. Nor may this herb-eater, 
as is veiy common, judge him who believeth that he 
may eat all things. He is safe, while " he eateth to 
the Lord, and giveth God thanks." 

Go, then, ye that are hungering, and gather the 
bread of the land. Feed first on Christ, and then on 
all He gives you. " Sow your fields, and plant vine- 
yards, which may yield fruits of increase." Let 
even the fallow ground be made to bring forth your 
sustenance. Consecrate the wide field of life to 
Christ, and He will command His blessing upon it all. 
Give your all to Him, and then out of the hundred 
fold which He returns to you, let every faculty which 
you possess — your every power — your whole charac- 
ter and being — be built up, as becomes the noblest 
workmanship of God upon this earth. 

But we come now to the deepest lesson to be 
drawn from this ceasing of the manna, and eating of 
the fruit of the land. Any view of it would be in- 
complete which overlooked Christ's own reference to 
it. " He that eateth me even he shall live by me. 
This is that bread which came down from heaven ; 
not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead ; he 
that eateth of this bread shall live forever."* Jesus 
Himself, then, is the true Antitype of the manna. To 
* John vi. 58. 



THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 215 

believe that Jesus is the Christ, to confess that He 
has come in the flesh, this is to have life. No soul 
that accepts Him in His life and death shall ever 
perish. 

But Christ came not merely to give us life, but 
" life more abundantly." And as we follow on to 
know the Lord, we know Him not only as He that 
lived and died for us, but as the Living One — alive 
forevermore. And if His life and death were the 
very bread of heaven, and the stricken Rock, that 
saved us when we were ready to perish in our hun- 
ger and thirst, so also His resurrection life in Heaven, 
is as the rich and abundant fruit of Canaan. All of 
His life that lies upon this side Jordan is the manna, 
but the full fruition is Christ glorified. Yet only to 
one who has well learned the saving truth — " It is 
Christ that died," can there possibly be a greater — 
" Yea rather that is risen again." The manna had 
ceased for Paul, and he was feasting on the richer 
portion, when he said — "Though we have known 
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we 
Him no more."* 

It is impossible to receive the full knowledge of 
Christ, through what He was on earth. For He 
"humbled Himself "—"emptied Himself "—"had no 
form nor comeliness " — was " a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief." All this was to cease — all 

* 2 Cor. v. 16. 



6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

power, all glory, all loveliness, all joy, all unsearch- 
able riches, are in Him as our Lord in G toy. 

Every one must have felt at times, that Chris s 
life did not, after all, touch our life at many poms 
We see why it could not be, but this does not qu t 
the longing that it might have been. How widely 
removed from our lives, for instance, as we know that 
God Himself orders them, in close family affection 
and dependence, and in all innocent pleasures, was 
the life of Jesus. We take our fill of the joy of 
social conve se-we smile, and laugh,-and it almost 
Ses us as we turn to our Great Example o 
remember that no such record is given of Him. Nay 
further, there are many things which we do daily, 
w, ch ve do not like to think of Him as also doing 
We would rather have it written that - Jesus wep 
than that He smiled; and yet our very smiles are 
sad unless they can somehow claim H.s sympathy. 

But 11 that we miss in Him, in that short w.lder 
ness iourney, we can surely claim as H.s, now that 
H has entered into His rest. His whole life was a 
" sing of hfe for the Gospel's sake; and yet surely, 
as He said it should be with us, He kept it unto Life 
eternal.- The Man Christ Jesus, mediating between 
God and man, walked this earth with the vow of a 

w; m seoarated for His service sake 
Nazante upon Him— separaieu 

from much of the very joy which He came to bring 
ThTNazarite, of old, might not drink the strong wine 
nor even the juice of the grape, nor eat the moist grape 



THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 2\J 

itself, nor yet the dry ; nor even so much as taste 
husk or kernel.* But this was only for " all the days 
of his separation;" "and after that, the Nazarite may 
drink wine." So also he might not shave his beard, 
and the long hair must mark neglect and subjection ; 
• — " Until the days be fulfilled, he shall let the locks 
of the hair of his head grow." f 

The days of Jesus' vow were the days of His life 
on earth, marked by the renunciation of social joys, 
and human honor. But His vow was ended when 
He cried, " It is finished." And now we may not 
think of the risen Lord as still a man of sorrows, nor 
count our Pattern, to be no more than the homely 
web of a Galilean life. His humanity has been glori- 
fied with the same glory, which already as to His 
divinity, He had with the Father before the world 
was. And far more glorious than the cunning work 
upon the veil of the Temple of old, is the work now 
wrought upon what was once His flesh. " The Glory 
Man " has risen infinitely above all that the highest 
culture of this world ever reached. All that God 
ever gave our human nature, has found its full and 
pure development in Him. And being all this Him- 
self, we may not limit His sympathies with us, by 
what He once did, and was, on earth. He would 
have us even in this sense " through His poverty 
become rich." 

The beginning of His miracles was not to remove 
* Num. vi. 3, 4. t Num. vi. 5. 

TO 



21 8 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

human sorrow, or to heal disease ; nor was it to meet 
a necessity of life, but to add to its festive joy. He 
who so late, would not so much as turn stones into 
bread, to satisfy the hunger of His long fast, turned 
water into wine, for those who had before " well 
drunk." Even so He waits to supply all our need, 
4< according to His riches in Glory." 

" Thou drawest all things to an Order fair ; 
The things we treasure most, with those our haste 
Doth count for nought, alike in Thee are graced 

With beauty past compare. 

" For all grows sweet in Thee, 
Since Thou didst gather us in One, and bring 

This fading flower of our humanity 
To perfect blossoming !" * 

Let none for a moment think, that by turning thus 
to the glorified Christ we slight His life, much less 
His death. It is the manna first; next the Passover; 
then, all the fruit of the land : and the manna ceased 
not until they kept their Passover. Only through 
the gate of His death, can we pass to His joyful 
resurrection. 

And let it not be forgotten that our Lord may call 
us also, for an appointed season, or even for a whole 
life, to the vow of a Nazarite. We may be keenly 
alive to the stimulus and delight of a high-toned 
social circle, and yet put this exhilarating draught 



* Poems, by the Author of " The Patience of Hope. 5 



m 



THE NEW CORN AND FRUIT OF THE LAND. 



2I 9 



aside — to go down the ranks of society, and give a 
cup of cold water to some little one. And beholding 
Art in her manifold attractions, conscious of some of 
her creative power, we may yet hasten from her tem- 
ple — to make like Dorcas, garments for the widow, 
and to be " full of good works and alms-deeds." 

And if God so call us, it shall only be our greater 
gain. It shall be no slighting, no wasting, of any 
gift He has given us. Many a seed of sacrifice bears 
its hundred-fold in this life : and those which can 
not, sown in Christ's grave, shall when we are glorified 
with Him, receive a life everlasting. 

Faint shadow, then, of the fulness of our Lord, wert 
thou, O Land of Judea, in those days of thy bounty. 
Thy cool springs from the depths beneath, thy show- 
ers in their season, thy early and thy latter rain, thy 
fields of waving corn and the joy of thy harvest, 
thy trees with all their goodly-laden boughs, thy 
vines and the gladness of thy vintage, the excellency 
of thy Carmel and the glory of thy Lebanon — faint 
shadows in all ye gave of old, of what He gives, in 
whose Risen Life " WE LIVE, AND MOVE, AND HAVE 
OUR BEING." 



CHAPTER XI. 

SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 
" A ND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN JOSHUA WAS BY 

A Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and 

LOOKED, AND BEHOLD, THERE STOOD A MAN OVER 
AGAINST HIM WITH HIS SWORD DRAWN IN HIS 
HAND • AND JOSHUA WENT UNTO HIM, AND SAID 
UNTO HIM, ART THOU FOR US, OR FOR OUR AD- 
VERSARIES? AND HE SAID, NAY; BUT I AM THE 
PRINCE OF THE ARMV OF JEHOVAH; NOW I AM 
COME."*— (5W*. V. 13. I4-) 

The preparation of Israel for the Conquest has 
been traced step by step, but it is still incomplete 
until the Conqueror is seen. It would almost appear 
that Joshua stood by Jericho, lifting up his eyes, and 
looking in some expectancy. Certainly he had been 
prepared for this by all the previous revelations of 
the Law. He had learned of Him as Creator, by all 
His manifest mastery over His own works; he had 
learned of Him as Ruler, drawing very nigh to man 
in government, and judgment ; he knew also of that 
holy Presence between the Cherubim ; but the prom- 

* Keil and Delitzsch. 
(220) 



s^a 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 2 2 1 

ises of God pointed to a still more personal manifes- 
tation. 

It had been said to Moses at Sinai, " Behold I send 
an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and 
to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 
Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not ; 
for he will not pardon your transgressions ; for my 
name is in him."* This promise which plainly indi- 
cated the Lord Himself, was withdrawn after the sin 
of the golden calf, and some angel of lower order 
substituted : — " I will send an Angel before thee . . . 
for I will not go up in the midst of thee/'f The mourn- 
ing of the people over these evil tidings, and the in- 
tercession of Moses, resulted in the restoration of this 
blessing ; — " My Face shall go, and I will give thee 
rest. "J It was as Isaiah tells us — " The Angel of His 
Face saved them. In His love and in His pity, He 
redeemed them : and He bare them and carried them 
all the days of old." § 

When the Lord thus renewed this promise, it was 
in the cloudy pillar at the Tabernacle door, speaking 
unto Moses " face to face as a man speaketh unto his 
friend." Joshua, who remained always near at hand, 
must have heard the promise, and must have known 
also of the vision which followed it in the Cleft of the 
Rock. That promise now belonged to him ; for as 

* Ex. xxiii. 20, 21. f Ex. xxxiii. 2, 3. % Ex. xxxiii. 14. 

§ Is. lxiii. 9. See Keil and Delitzsch, Com. on Pentateuch. Vol. 
II., p. 235. 



222 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

given at first, it had made mention of these nations 
now before them, and declared that they should be 
thus cut off. Was not this the time of need ? Was 
not the enemy within their very sight ? — where was 
the Angel then ? How the prayers of his heart must 
have been poured out, as he stood and looked. What 
sign would the Lord give him ? If His Face was 
there, would He show it ? Not in great glory, not 
even in angelic might, did the Lord appear ; but so 
simply, so humanly, that Joshua saw only that He 
was a stranger. That sword in His hand meant war- 
fare. But was it an enemy, or was it indeed some 
helper sent by God ? And now he learns that it is no 
earthly captain, but the great Leader of all the heav- 
enly hosts of God. Joshua may remain the Captain 
of Israel's forces, but meantime another Captain, and 
another army, are to fight their battles for them, and 
subdue the Land. 

There had been previously no manifestation of 
Jehovah, which so mingled the human and the 
Divine. Never before had one with the form and 
voice of a man, called upon man to render him the 
honor given to God only. — Joshua fell on his face to 
the earth, and did worship, and no voice restrained 
him, saying — " See thou do it not ;" but, " the Captain 
of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe 
from off thy foot ; for the place whereon thou stand- 
est is holy. And Joshua did so."* Moses had done 

* Josh. v. 15. 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



223 



this, when God called to him out of the midst of the 
burning bush ; but now a man worships a seeming 
Man : this heralds the Incarnation and anticipates 
the Gospel. In the revelation of this Person —this 
Prince — the blessed preparation for possessing the 
land clearly culminates. 

It is true that the eyes of one man only, saw this 
Captain ; but in some sense he saw for all his people : 
he saw Him but for a few moments, and yet he saw 
for all those years of warfare. Never in any coming 
hour of battle, could he forget that there before 
them stood One, whose sword it was inconceivable 
that any foe could resist. Nor could he ever feel 
again, that further responsibility rested upon him, 
than faithfully to follow. Another led them on ; 
Another gave command ; Another always conquered. 
There are often sudden revelations to the soul, which 
contain the strength of years to come — which, like the 
lightning flash in the darkness, reveal the path, where 
the feet may tread safely, long afterward. To have 
seen the Lord, though for a moment, that is to be 
strong for a whole life. 

In granting such a revelation to Joshua, as a per- 
sonal privilege, the Lord recognized a very real need 
in our nature. The heart instinctively demands a 
Person, as the object of its trust, and the closest pos- 
sible knowledge of that Person. You give to such a 
craving heart a creed ; it may be well, but it is only 
another need that you have met. You give it doc- 



224 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

trine ; you give it the various relations of truth ; it 
gathers up its treasure, and still is full of longing; 
for this human heart is all alive, and can find commun- 
ion only in life. You go further still, and give it the 
clearest teaching of a Personal Christ, and of the ab- 
solute personality of the Spirit; but only all the 
more will it reach out beyond even this, and say — 
" My heart and my flesh crieth out for THE Living 
God !" " We would see Jesus" is the demand of the 
most distant, who have heard of Him afar off; and 
it is the one overmasting desire of those who have 
come the nearest. 

In what way, then, and to what extent, has Christ 
provided for the satisfaction of this desire ? The In- 
carnation has met it in part. The foundation for it 
was laid very solidly in that mystery — " God manifest 
in the flesh." Nor is the blessing of that manifesta- 
tion at all limited to the brief period in which it was 
a present fact ; it reaches back through all the time, 
in which Prophecy pointed expectantly to the Com- 
ing One, and forward through all the ages to which 
the testimony of His life is handed down. Apart 
from the basis of such a fact, a spiritual revelation 
could have little power: all would be vague and shad- 
owy, and there could be little vividness of mental 
or spiritual apprehension. But this the Incarnation 
has secured ; and the blessedness of it has been em- 
phasized for us, by the one who knew it beyond all 
others, and yet sought to share it with all — " That 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



225 



which was from the beginning, that which we have 
heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that 
which we looked upon, and our hands handled, con- 
cerning the Word of Life — (And the life was mani- 
fested, and we have seen it, and bear witness of it, 
and declare to you that Life which is eternal, the 
which was with the Father and was manifested to us) 
— that which we have heard and seen, we declare to 
you also, in order that ye also may have communio7i 
with us." * Such a reality, preserved by such testi- 
mony, may transmit to an unlimited future the fellow- 
ship of Christ. Jesus has lived upon this earth ; and 
the simple belief of this record by all those whose 
eyes never saw Him, brings a blessing not sur- 
passed by theirs who because they saw, therefore 
believed. Bethlehem and Calvary share in the mys- 
terious nature of Eternity, stretching backward and 
forward. 

But the outward manifestation of Christ is not our 
sole need ; — there is still a deeper, which not even the 
endless perpetuation of His life upon this earth, could 
have met. " It is expedient for you that I go away/' 
said Jesus — expedient, because He must reveal Him- 
self, both more intimately, and more universally, to 
His own. He must come in such away, that not only 
in Galilee and Judea, may great multitudes behold 
Him — but that over all the earth, without any inter- 
vening space for the foot to travel, wherever a long- 

* 1 John i. 1-3. See Dean Alford's " Greek Testament." 
jo* 



226 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

ing eye is lifted, there it shall see Jesus. He must 
come, moreover, in such a way, that something more 
precious even than outward presence — His spirit, His 
inner life — may be revealed, and revealed also to that 
which is highest in us — our spirit. Even when out- 
wardly manifested, there was no true perception of 
Him without this. When Peter confessed Him as 
Christ, the Son of the living God, it was the Father 
who revealed it unto him. So also no man was ever 
to be able to say that Jesus Christ was Lord, but by 
the Holy Ghost. It was an inestimable blessing to 
St. Paul, to be added as last of the many hundred 
witnesses who saw the Lord in His resurrection 
Body ; * but it was a blessing even beyond this to 
have Christ revealed in him.f Unquestionably the 
fullest revelation of all will be that which will com- 
bine both of these ; and while we exult in the glo- 
rious manifestation of Christ through the Spirit, we 
may not forget that the true Apocalypse is yet to 
come. Not till He who has redeemed our Spirits, 
shall have redeemed our Bodies also, can we see 
Him as He is — " face to face." But being what we 
now are, the manifestation through the Spirit, is a 
richer blessing than was given in the days of His 
flesh. While we wait for His coming to receive us 
unto Himself, we know that He has said of that 
time of waiting — " I will not leave you comfortless : 

* i Cor. xv. 6, 8. t Gal. i. 16. 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



227 



I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world 
seeth me no more ; but ye see me."* 

What then is the nature of this coming? — Is it to 
be a mere influence, reaching us from One who dwells 
afar off? — Is it only thinking of the Lord Jesus, and 
giving Him a place in our hearts — nay, enshrining 
Him in our deepest affections? — A strange question 
is this to ask, in the face of such promises ; and yet 
this is the poor pittance that many gather from His 
blessed words ! And they will tell you, how when 
a beloved earthly friend goes far from you, your 
thoughts will follow still to the other side of the 
globe, and so bring the cherished presence back ; 
that his image will abide in your heart ; his life as 
you have known it still influence your life ; so that 
still he seems ever with you ; — and that even thus it 
is that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. 

All this is true, but it is only a tithe of the great 
spiritual truth. — We see at once that were there 
nothing beyond this ideal presence, we could never 
claim for it a real personality. But this personality 
it was that Jesus promised, and so carefully reiter- 
ated — " I will not leave you orphans ; / will come 
to you :" — "He the spirit of truth shall come." It is 
not only our thought following Him into His heavenly 
home ; it is not only His thought constantly fixed 
upon us in the midst of His glory — but it is a Power, 

* John xiv. 1 8, 19. 



228 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

it is a Presence — it is a PERSON who comes — "/ will 
come" — "I will see you " — "/will manifest myself y 

And in this last form of promise, He clearly gives 
us to understand that we should have perception of 
His presence. He would make His coming clear and 
satisfying to our souls — a substance, not a shadow. 
He would give an evidence which should appeal not 
indeed to bodily senses, but to spiritual : He implies 
that they also are trustworthy; that as the sight, 
and hearing, and touch, are accepted as soundest evi- 
dence, unless the witness be disqualified by bodily or 
mental disease — so a spiritual sense, more subtle, but 
not less sure, should attest the reality of spiritual 
things. Not only are we warranted in accepting such 
impressions as conclusive to ourselves, but there may 
be results which shall become appreciable evidence to 
others. The words of Jesus respecting our being 
born of the Spirit, may apply to every subsequent 
manifestation of His — " The wind bloweth where it 
listeth, and thou Jiearest the sound thereof, but canst 
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth :" 
Something shown, and something secret — concealing, 
even while revealing — this is for the present the man- 
ner of the Spirit, and the way of all Divine manifes- 
tations. The evidence is addressed to Faith ; and 
while there will always be enough to meet its needs, 
the false demands of Reason will not be met. Such 
a manifestation can never be less than a mystery ; 
but it is one of the mysteries which Christ has said 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



229 



should be given to us to know. How clearly is such 
evidence contrasted by St. Paul with that of the 
senses, and yet claimed to be equally reliable — " Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard " — " but God hath re- 
vealed by His Spirit ;" and again we have the same 
contrast, and claim — " What man knoweth the things 
of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? 
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the 
Spirit of God. Now we have received the Spirit 
which is of God ; that we might know the things 
that are freely given to us of God." To make this 
still clearer, it is added — " The natural (psychical) man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither 
can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned."* No words could well make it plainer, that 
both the revelation, and the perception, are God's 
gifts to the believer ; that in receiving spiritual life, 
he receives new powers, and new senses ; — in fact, an 
absolute enlargement and elevation of his being. Yet 
it is also shown to be necessary, that by reason of 
use these senses should be exercised. In the fact 
that they are so often neglected, lies the explanation 
of very much of the weakness and helplessness of 
those, who in these respects are babes, when they 
should be men of full age. Yet how difficult for one 
to describe what sight and hearing are, to the blind 
and deaf; and almost more difficult still to convey 

* 1 Cor. ii. 9-14. 



230 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

their nice discriminations, and most delicate percep- 
tions, to untrained eyes and ears. 

That the soul has such a perception, that such 
manifestations of Himself are given by Christ, has 
been in all ages the clear consciousness, and calm 
testimony, of those who have walked most closely 
with God. No one can call in question the fact, that 
under the old Dispensation, such knowledge of heav- 
enly things was repeatedly given; — that not only 
Prophets, but many a humbler servant of God, saw 
and heard far beyond the range of his natural senses. 
Surely that which was extraordinary and exceptional 
then, was never designed to utterly vanish with the 
personal coming of the Holy Spirit. Christ's own 
announcement to Nathaniel teaches us quite other- 
wise : His new follower marvelled because Jesus had 
seen him under the fig-tree ; but the time had come, 
when His disciples should not only be seen, but see. — 
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, HENCEFORTH,^ shall 
see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending 
and descending upon the Son of man."* Nor dare 
we limit these words to spiritual sight : the Body 
which is hallowed as a Temple by the indwelling 
Spirit may have its vision also ; and it is not for us 
to say, how soon it shall be given, or how far it shall 
be able to reach. One memorable instance we have 
of its power, when Stephen, " being full of the Holy 
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the 

* John i. 51. 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



231 



glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand 
of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, 
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of 
God."* And if we may judge at all from well- 
avouched records in the past, and from the sacred 
scenes that are cherished in so many memories of the 
living, there must have been thousands upon thou- 
sands since Stephen fell asleep, who ready to depart 
and be with Christ, had not only spiritual vision of 
Him — but as if in pledge and foretaste of their resur- 
rection, knew the Spirit so to quicken their mortal 
bodies, that the eye saw, and the ear heard. Cher- 
ished as such instances rightly are, as sacred secrets 
by the survivors, they can not be discredited by thou- 
sands of others that might be cited, of the hallucina- 
tions of unbalanced and unregulated minds ; though 
even in these instances what may be the residuum of 
truth, and how far the Lord may condescend to great 
weakness and ignorance, it is not always safe for us 
to judge.f 

But such questions lie beyond the subject properly 
before us, which is that of such a spiritual manifesta- 
tion of Christ to our spirits as shall be both sensible and 
sure. The witnesses of this reality are beyond sus- 
picion, and they are many, albeit not multitudes. 

* Acts vii. 55, 56. 

t In this exception the writer has chiefly in mind, the large 
number of such statements which she has heard from the former 
slaves of the South — told with such sincerity that one could not 
slight them. 



2^2 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

That the world at large knows nothing of all this, 
is in precise accordance with the limitations of the 
promise— " Whom the world can not receive, because 
it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." Again 
that all the children of God are not conscious of such 
a presence, that with many it is rare or interrupted, 
and with others so faint as to bring little assurance, 
is also precisely what we might infer from the condi- 
tion of the promise—" How is it," asked one of his 
Lord, " that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and 
not unto the world ? Jesus answered and said unto 
him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words : and 
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
and make our abode with him."* Once more—" He 
that followeth Me," said Jesus, " shall not walk in 
darkness, but shall have the light of life."f Will not 
those who love most, know most of the Holy Pres- 
ence ? Will not those who follow closely, see much ; 
and those who follow afar off, see little ? And yet 
there are instances of apparently close walking, where 
the Heavenly vision is not given : there are loving souls 
that can find no link between them and their Lord, 
more real and living than His Word which He has 
left them. Baffling as are some of these cases, yet in 
many of them— only He who searches the heart can 
know whether in all or not— there are visible hin- 
drances. Such a hindrance, is the assertion of the 
natural powers beyond their proper province ; for 
* John xiv. 22, 23. t John viii. 12. 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



233 



Reason, and keen Analysis are out of their sphere in 
this Presence. When they are even applied to the 
experience of others, the sensitive soul shrinks from 
them as from the horror of a vivisection. Especially 
is there a lack in many of that childlikeness of spirit, 
which is always foremost in privilege — the readiness 
and the receptivity of the guileless spirit, and the 
quick response to the least token of His presence : — 
" Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of heaven 
as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein." And 
if it must be so that he enters the kingdom, how 
otherwise shall he see the King ? 

" The childlike faith that asks not sight, 
Waits not for wonder or for sign, 
Believes, because it loves aright — 
Shall see things greater, things divine." 

Again, how often is the hindrance some slight reser- 
vation. The soul, half conscious of the difficulty, 
argues — But this is such a little thing ; besides, it is a 
somewhat doubtful thing ; it could not surely hinder 
my Lord from revealing Himself. But, remember, it 
is written, " If a man love Me," and has true love any 
reserve ? Have you never known how a very little 
concealment may mar a human fellowship ? Have 
you never noticed, also, how the extent to which you 
can speak of very little things to others, and seek 
their counsel in them, measures not only your confi- 
dence, but the mutual intimacy ? We love to go 
often to that home where nothing is hidden from 



234 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

us, nothing changed for our coming ; but where the 
whole life as it is, is lived out simply before us. Vis- 
its of ceremony are not pleasurable upon either side, 
and the Comforter never so comes. 

Still another hindrance exists in the vague appre- 
hension of the promise itself, so that many might 
answer, not wholly unlike the disciples at Ephesus : 
" We have not so much as heard that the Holy Spirit 
does so manifest Himself, and that we may enjoy the 
presence of the Lord Jesus." Faithful answers re- 
turned from all Christendom to this question — What 
is the Presence of Christ to your souls? — would 
doubtless bring to light an astonishing sum of igno- 
rance as to this great blessing. Finally, the position 
will be taken by many, that this is a treasure so 
choice as to be offered only to a few ; and that while 
some are no doubt permitted to enjoy this richest of 
God's gifts, the majority must be content to walk by 
faith, and not by sight. They say, mournfully, " The 
Quest is not for me." But surely the promise of 
Christ is partial, only, in requiring a certain sort of 
receptivity which His grace makes possible to all be- 
lievers. Not a hint is given of any other restriction. 
The gift of the Spirit implies every degree of privi- 
lege to which we will suffer Him to guide us, and that 
gift, the Apostle Peter declared to be " unto you and 
to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as 
many as the Lord our God shall call." * 

* Acts ii. 39. 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



235 



As to the invidious distinction, drawn between 
walking by faith and walking by sight, it is quite irrel- 
evant to the question. For what is Faith, if we 
accept the only direct definition of it which is given 
in the Scriptures? "Now, Faith is the substance 
{vTibaraoiq) of things hoped for, the evidence (eAey^oc) 
of things not seen." * Whatever may be the full force 
of these words, whether we choose to fritter away 
their grand objective solidity, to a mere subjective 
shadow or not — one thing it is certain, they can not 
mean ; — a mere belief about the things hoped for and 
unseen. They suggest no possible contrast to sight, 
but even in their lowest significance, confirm the fact 
of an inner vision, of the most certain kind, enjoyed 
by Faith. When St. Paul spoke of walking " by faith 
and not by appearance" \ he was dwelling upon the 
difference between this inner vision, and that more 
open one which awaits us in the Resurrection — so 
much more glorious and satisfying, that we can not 
cease from longing for it. 

It is not easy to appreciate the knowledge of any- 
thing of which we are ignorant ; and so the question 
has been asked — ' Of what practical use can such a 
manifestation be? Does it secure anything beyond 
mere transient joy ? May not one be as strong who 
simply takes the Word of God, and walks by its 
light, trusting to the secret cooperation of the 
Spirit?' 

* Heb. xi. 1. t 2 Cor. v. 6-8. 



236 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

No one who has ever known the Lord in the way 
which He has promised, could possibly assent to this. 
The higher knowledge of Jesus is absolutely incom- 
municable, through even the most precious of those 
words given by inspiration of God — " I have heard 
of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye 
seeth Thee" marks a new mode of acquainting oneself 
with the Lord. It is as with the friends we love. 
We may have known much through hearing of them, 
much more through the frequent reading of their own 
best thoughts, and yet, when for the first time we 
meet, a few days of personal presence puts us in such 
possession of their inmost nature, of the character as 
a whole, and of our own share in their love, as it were 
hopeless to think of gaining in any other way. True, 
we have to wait for the full day-dawn, and the Day- 
Star, to know even as we are known ; but even in the 
light of the Morning Star, we do know hi part. This 
knowledge of His blessed Presence, enriches and en- 
dears all other knowledge of Him. It is a constant illu- 
mination for His Word ; for now, as we read, we see 
ever the expression of His eye ; as we listen, we ever 
hear the intonation of His own voice ; the word be- 
comes a living Word, when Faith has seen the Lord. 
But, not only does the manifest presence of Jesus 
give fuller knowledge, and impart greater strength, 
but beyond anything else, it intensifies Love. It is 
the instinctive yearning of love to be near the beloved 
one. The richest part of its life is in that love. Is it 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



237 



not, then, because God is Love, that He so manifests 
Himself? — that He can not stay far off from the de- 
sire of His own eyes ? — and that, therefore, if a man 
love Him and keep His words, the Father will love 
him, and they — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — will 
come and make their abode in him who so loves ? He 
who has missed this presence of the Lord, has missed 
the joy of joys — "the love of God shed abroad in our 
hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." 
He who has missed this Presence, has missed also one 
of the chief secrets of his sanctification. How can 
any one become like the Lord, without seeing Him ? 
— since we are told that it is by beholding in a mirror 
the glory of the Lord, that we are changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
of the Lord. When the heart turns to the Lord with 
the veil that hides this glory, He has said that it shall 
be taken away; He who heard the prayer of Moses 
will hear our prayer, " / beseech Thee, show me Thy 
Glory." 

And only to such seeking souls, is there any secu- 
rity that they will find Him. Even His coming again 
in visible glory, is limited in its blessing, " unto 
them who look for Him.''' * So it is written also, " The 
Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Tem- 
ple, "f And we may venture to apply to the coming 
of the Lord by His Spirit, that which was said of His 
glorious appearing, " Looking for and hastening His 

* Heb. ix. 28. t Mai. iii. 1. 



238 THE FULNESS OF BLESSIXG. 

coming." Even now, the Lord whom ye seek, and 
whom ye delight in, is He who comes. Nor will any 
fitful seeking suffice : it must be the settled attitude 
of the soul. The Good Shepherd seeketh His lost 
sheep until He find it, and thus should we return to 
the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. It was when 
Joshua lifted up his eyes and looked, that he saw 
the Heavenly Captain : — How many may miss their 
Lord for want of this ! We see quickly, and see 
often, whatever interests us most. The Naturalist 
will put to shame a common eye, by the ease with 
which he everywhere discovers his treasures : he has 
learned where to look and how to look. In this busy, 
bustling age, the Christian too often allows the hurry 
of the world to sweep away all repose of soul ; so 
that he has no noontide hour when he can sit like 
Abraham in his tent-door, ready to call in the angels ; 
with leisure enough to lift up his eyes and look, and 
with love enough to run to meet the heavenly Visitant, 
and constrain Him to tarry, saying — M My Lord, if now 
I have found favor in Thy sight, pass not away, I pray 
Thee, from Thy servant." * 

Blessed be God that seeing the Lord Jesus, we see 
Him as our Captain, not only commanding His army 
here on earth — but Prince of all principalities and pow- 
ers. The whole host of heaven is at His command : 
He can send forth, as He pleases, the ministering 
spirits, " to minister to them who shall be heirs of 

* Gen. xviii. 1-3. 



_J 



SEEING THE CAPTAIN. 



239 



salvation." Having seen His Face as our light and 
our salvation, how calmly can we front the enemy. 
" Though an host should encamp against me, my 
heart shall not fear ; though war should rise against 
me, in this will I be confident."* 

And blessed be God for the Sword that our Cap- 
tain holds — that out of His mouth there goeth the 
sharp, two-edged sword : for He speaks and it is 
done ; He utters His word, and out of weakness we 
are made strong; again He utters it and all our ene- 
mies melt away. Having seen Jesus, have we seen 
also the flashing of the sword of the Spirit ? All 
Holy Scripture that has been written, still cometh 
out of His mouth in its fulfilment, quick and power- 
ful to do its work, alike by the Blessing and the 
curse, the Promise and the woe. 

Great Prince of Faith, going forth before Thine 
armies, let Thine " eyes as a flame of fire " kindle all 
our hearts with holy courage ; and hold us by Thine 
own power, " looking unto Jesus " — till Thou comest 
" in the clouds of heaven," and we see Thee FACE TO 

FACE. 



* See Ps. xxvii. 1-4. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 
i4/r pHE PEOPLE PASSED OVER RIGHT AGAINST 

A Jericho." — {Josh. iii. 16.) "And the Lord 
said unto Joshua, See, I have given into 
thine hand Jericho." — {Josh. vi. 2.) 

The time was past for leading the people about, 
lest they should repent at the sight of war. They 
had come over Jordan to possess the land, and were 
thoroughly advised that they must therefore dispos- 
sess their enemies. Moreover, it was well for them 
to learn at the very outset, that their God was able 
to save them in their sorest straits, and to show Him- 
self stronger than the strongest, that so they might be 
set free from the fear of every foe. Therefore, even 
while passing over Jordan, they faced the Fortress, 
the key to all the Land. Joshua had fully under- 
stood its importance, when he sent the two men from 
Shittirn, to view the land, even Jericho. The terror 
that fell upon that stronghold, might well cause 
" all the inhabitants of the country to faint," because 
of this advancing host. Here, then, the work was to 
(240) 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



241 



begin, which was to result in the driving out of seven 
nations mightier than they. The conquest of this 
one city forecast the whole campaign. 

The question now arises, Wherein do these new 
enemies differ from those already encountered ? 
Egypt had been their enemy, but God in delivering 
them from that oppression, had said, " The Egyp- 
tians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them 
again no more forever."* Pharaoh and his host, hard- 
ly letting the people go, are vivid types of the bond- 
age of this world, and the tyranny of " the god of this 
world." But, however sore the struggle, or hot the 
pursuit, God so delivers His own, that henceforth 
they are "not of the world," nor the " servants of 
sin." But now follow conflicts of another character. 
The next encounter of Israel was with Amalek.f 
This tribe which took its name from the grandson of 
Esau, cherished all the bitter hatred that sought to 
avenge a bartered birthright. Its mode of attack, as 
recounted by Moses, was full of malice. " He met 
thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, 
even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou 
wast faint and weary.";f Here is the fitting type of 
the Flesh, with which name the Scriptures stamp the 
whole natural man, with his wild and wayward 
nature. " As then, he that was born after the flesh, 
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so 



* Ex. xiv. 13. f Ex. xvii. 8. % Deut xxv. 18. 

11 



242 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

it is now."* Only too closely does that stealthy 
attack of their own kin, in an unguarded moment, re- 
semble those temptations which waylay the soul, 
when " the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is 
weak ;" when the inward man delights indeed in the 
law of God, but finds " another law " in this same 
flesh, warring against him. Only discomfited and 
held at bay in this attack, Israel was charged to " re- 
member what Amalek did," and when the Lord had 
given them rest from all other enemies in the land, 
then they were to " blot out his remembrance from 
under heaven. "f So Moses builded his altar, and 
" called the name of it Jehovah Nissi ; for he said, 
Because the Lord hath sworn, that the Lord will have 
war with Amalek from generation to generation."^: 
Again and again in the history of the Judges, we find 
this nomad nation helping to oppress Israel. Saul 
lost his kingdom because he did not execute the fierce 
wrath of the Lord against Amalek; while David was 
established in his, only after he had returned from 
that slaughter, in which he recovered all that he had 
lost.§ So that the first foe encountered after their 
redemption was the last to be utterly subdued. 

* Gal. iv. 29. f Dcut. xxv. 17-19. % Ex. xvii. 15, 16. 

§ 1 Sam. xxx. 19. In this final destruction of Amalek at the 
setting up of the kingdom, there seems shadowed forth the end of 
the long warring of the Flesh against the Spirit, in the kingdom of 
the true David. After all the great distress, and the weeping — " till 
they had no more power to weep" — David pursued, and recov- 
ered all that had been carried captive. "There was nothing 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



243 



This conflict with Amalek was the only contest up 
to the time of the Provocation. Immediately after 
that, when the people attempted to enter the land 
presumptuously, in their own strength, we find a sig- 
nificant combination of the Amalekites and Canaan- 
ites, which resulted in Israel's discomfiture and flight 
to Hormah.* Near the expiration of the forty years, 
on their return to this same place, the Canaanites 
" took some of them prisoners." It was then that 
" Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord," to put all their 
cities under a ban, as He should deliver them into 
their hand. After the victory u they called the place 
Hormah," i. e. " the banning-place!'\ These few con- 
tests were intermediate. 

The next phase of warfare is totally different. 
Israel is at last prepared to assume the aggress- 
ive. We have upon the east of Jordan a sort of 
rehearsal of the main conquest. " Rise ye up, take 
your journey, and pass over the river Arnon : behold 
I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king 
of Heshbon, and his land : begin to possess it, and 
contend with him in battle." % Then follows the 

lacking to them, neither small nor great David recover ea 

ally So we know that down to the very victory of the grave, 
Christ will " without fail recover all." Also, as at the Exodus, 
they had spoiled the Egyptians, so here we read of flocks and 
herds which were driven back with their own, of which they said, 
" This is David's spoil" 

* Num. xiv. 40-45. 

t Num. xxi. 1-3. See Keil and Delitzsch. \ Deut. ii. 24. 



244 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



overthrow, so often celebrated in their songs, of 
Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, 
whose lands became their possession. This was in- 
troductory warfare."* 

Still the main struggle awaited them over Jor- 
dan ; and the summons was now — " Hear, O Israel : 
Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to 
possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, 
cities great and fenced up to heaven ; a people great 
and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou 
knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can 
stand before the children of Anak !" f Again and 
again they are mentioned by their names, as " seven 
nations greater and mightier than thou." Such were 
the enemies who held the inheritance given to Abra- 
ham centuries before, and whom they must now dis- 
possess and destroy. War now opens in earnest. 

In like manner, the main struggle of the Christian 
is not found among his earlier experiences. The 
World and the Flesh may have caused him many a 
conflict, but what were these compared to the more 
direct power of the Devil, as he resists with all his 
combined forces the advancing soul. The Epistle to 
the Ephesians, which describes most fully our rich 
spiritual blessings, gives also the strongest statements 

* In a small volume entitled " High Truth," by the Rev. R. 
Aitken [London : Macintosh], there is a very interesting applica- 
tion of this warfare with Sihon and Og. See pp. 60-70. 

t Deut. ix. 1, 2. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



245 



of this warfare, and the profound nature of it. " Our 
wrestling is against governments, against powers, 
against the world rulers of this darkness, against the 
spiritual armies of wickedness in heavenly places !" 
It is thus against " the schemes of the Devil " that 
we are to stand.* 

This subject involves some of the profoundest mys- 
teries that surround our being. While naturalism has 
proudly denied the existence of Satan, even Christen- 
dom has largely ignored it. Where the Scriptures 
speak simply and strongly, and doubtless with the 
profoundest philosophic truth, of the Devil and of 
Demons, of their power to bind, and afflict, and op- 
press — giving us their very numbers — whether one, 
or seven, or a legion — expressing their fears, which 
are like no human fears, and their instant knowledge 
of Christ, with much else that clearly characterized 
them, how many Christians think of this language as 
only an accommodation to the superstition of the 
times. May it not be possible that the pride of 
Science, and the presumption of Christian Reason, 
have both of them yet to be humbled, by some sub- 
stratum of terrible truth glaring through the darkness 
and deceit of " Spiritualism? " 

Very plainly by all the assertions of Revelation, 
the chief conflict is not between our souls and the 
World that lieth in the Wicked One ; nor is it only 
between the good and evil in our own natures. The 



* Eph. vi. 11, 12. (Dean Alford's rendering). 



* 



246 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

chief contending powers upon both sides are super- 
natural : they are the Spirit of God, and the Prince 
of the power of the air. The existence of this super- 
natural region — the fact that the rebellion originated 
there, and is to be encountered there, even in heav- 
enly places — invests our share in the warfare with the 
utmost importance. It was another fall, that makes 
our fall the fearful thing it is ; and our susceptibility 
to influences, reaching us not only from nature, and 
our fellow-beings, but from other worlds, is the fate- 
ful element of all. 

For the dominion once allotted to man, and lost 
through sin, is not unoccupied — it is usurped: the 
active forces of evil are astir over the entire region. 
One part of that dominion was this earth ; but, as the 
result of this usurpation, we find Creation marred, and 
its laws disordered, and " it groanetJi." We find the 
same disorder, but still more rife, in the body of man ; 
its sickness and its sufferings, its frequent deformity, 
and its common shame — these surely are no part of 
that work which was "very good." u An enemy hath 
done tliis!' But the Usurper has seized the intellect 
of man, and sometimes sinking it below the intelli- 
gence of the beasts, has more often stolen the gifts 
which only God could give, to make them subtle as 
himself in all evil ends. Again, as no man is a unit 
by himself, but much of his life the composite life of 
his race, we behold Society in all its ramifications, 
from government down to family life, poisoned by this 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH 



247 



same Serpent. Hence, the oppression of Rulers, vio- 
lence and strife among men, malice and fraud, envy 
and evil-speaking, and the Destroyer pressing closer 
and closer to the great centres of society — at last man's 
chief sufferings spring from the very affections which 
were meant to link him to his kind. The highest 
civilizations of earth, apart from the Gospel, have left 
the social relations as they found them, a zvreck. 
Finally, the Foe entered the Citadel also, and so 
seized the noblest part of man — his spirit — as to con- 
sign it to very death — so that to regain it he must 
even be born again. 

All this wide dominion which he has usurped, is 
the dominion to be regained. Whether it be sin, or 
whether it be sorrow, or whether it be only straitness, 
the Lord Jesus came to " destroy the works of the 
Devil" His Gospel announces the final recovery of 
all that was lost — a time of " restitution of all things," 
not only down to the redemption of our body, but 
the deliverance of Creation also. 

But this is not all that the Gospel pledges. To His 
own Church, Christ will give His own glory. Man in 
Him is to be made higher than the angels. Our 
original estate in Adam was blessed, our inheritance 
vast. But what shall be said of the glory of this ? — 
this Hope of our Calling — the riches of glory of our 
inheritance in Christ ? Such a result of Redemption 
as this — 



248 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

" Greater good because of evil, 
Larger mercy through the fall " — 

must needs enrage our Adversary to resist to the 
utmost the purpose of God, and to keep us, if possi- 
ble, from its realization. 

The War of Canaan corresponds to this great con- 
test. Not with the World — not with the Flesh — it is 
waged directly with the Devil, from whom they de- 
rive their power, and who may employ them still as 
his instruments. Above all it is aggressive. We must 
advance upon " the strong man keeping his palace 
with his goods in peace." He cares not to come forth 
and begin the attack ; but so soon as we set our feet 
upon " the heavenly places," then comes that onset 
which St. Paul has described as a wrestling, hand to 
hand, foot to foot.* 

It has been said, that "all the promises of God to 
His elect take hold of unfathomable mysteries.'* 
And as the natural man can not receive these things, 
as they can only be spiritually discerned, the first wile 
of Satan is to keep us from the sight of them. While 
he wholly blinds the eyes of them that believe not, 
he succeeds in drawing over the eyes of many a be- 
liever, a veil, which so dims these mysteries of Grace, 
that few suspect what they are missing. For such, the 
good fight of faith means only defensive warfare. 

* Eph. vi. 12. " -d/.v must be literally taken. It is a hand to 
hand, and foot to foot ' tug of war' — that in which the combatants 
close and wrestle for the mastery." — Dean Alforcfs Greek Test. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



249 



Then he can carry his wiles still further, and so ob- 
scure the conscience, that the definition of sin dwin- 
dles into deliberate disobedience ; till for the sins of 
ignorance, and the sins of omission, and the taint of 
sin through our whole existence, and the tendency to 
sin in the soul itself, there is no discernment left. 
Accordingly, many a scheme of so-called Sanctifica- 
tion has been set forth, which resolved Holiness into 
mere integrity of purpose, and a consciousness which 
escaped condemnation. 

Another wile of Satan, is to make us mistake the 
field ; to regard the battle before us as chiefly the 
more visible one, between the children of God, and 
the children of the Wicked one. It is true we must 
each take our part in this great contest of the whole 
Body of Believers ; but to be efficient in this wider 
warfare, another victory must precede it, won in the 
secret of the soul. " He that ruleth his spirit is bet- 
ter than he that taketh a city." * It is not first to 
storm the citadel of stubborn hearts, that our Cap- 
tain summons us, but to let His banner wave above 
our own. The work as set before us by the Scriptures 
is this — " The pulling down of strongholds, casting 

* " We may dream that it would be a grand and glorious work, 
to overcome sin in the world : we may think of sallying out on 
such an enterprise for the sake of magnifying ourselves by it : 
all efforts, however, directed towards such an end will be vain, 
until we have gone through the far more painful and toilsome 
task of overcoming sin in ourselves." — Archdeacon Hares Mis- 
sion of the Comforter, p. 202. 



250 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



down imaginations, and every high tower that exalt- 
eth itself against the knowledge of God, and leading 
captive every intent of the mind into subjection to 
Christ."* Such was the victory won by the Apostle 
Paul in his own spirit, and which he coveted for 
others. Such is the struggle, or call it rather the 
victory, that awaits the consecrated and believing 
soul. 

Let us turn now to trace another lesson in those 
things which " happened unto them for types." We 
see that as it did not please the Lord to expel their 
enemies before their entrance, so it did not please 
Him even after it, to expel them instantaneously. 
Each would have been perfectly easy, but would not 
have accorded with the plan which He had long 
before announced. It was at Mt. Sinai that He had 
sa id — " I w iH not drive them out from before thee in 
one year; lest the land become desolate, and the 
beast of the field multiply against thee. By little 
and little I will drive them out from before thee, 
until thou be increased and inherit the land."f Such 
is that principle of deepest wisdom which guides the 
ways of God, and which may be traced throughout 
His Creation, and throughout His Providence ; which 
is interwoven in all History, and which in the volume 
of Inspiration, is seen reaching from the lost Eden, 
to the Paradise of our God. Everywhere with a 
gracious accommodation of Truth, in itself unchange- 
* 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. t Ex. xxiii. 29, 30. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



251 



able, is the word spoken unto His people as they are 
able to bear it. In all things, but most especially in 
His best things, does our God work on slowly and 
steadily, but surely, to His great everlasting end. 
Time in His Eternity, is not the slow thing it is to 
us, and He builds for Eternity. 

Forty years after this announcement of the Divine 
plan at Sinai, we find Moses repeating it still more 
explicitly — " The Lord thy God will put out those 
nations before thee by little and little : thou mayest 
not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the 
field increase upon thee. But the Lord Thy God 
shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them 
with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. 
And He shall deliver their kings into thine hand, 
and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven ; 
there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until 
thou have destroyed them."* Three points are to 
be noted in this promise : 

I. God would drive them out by little and little. 

II. This was to end in a mighty destruction. 

III. Meantime His people should be constant victors. 

As regards the first point, it is clear that this grad- 
ual conquest in no way resulted from Israel's unbelief, 
but was the original plan of God. Not in one year, 
He had said, would He drive out before them these old 
inhabitants ; and we gather from the history that it 

* Deut. vii. 22-24. 



252 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



was seven years before the land " rested from war." * 
If the inference be correct, it was a year for a nation 
that was needed. As their enemies represented in 
their very number the completeness of strength, so 
may the number of the years, the full course of time. 

There was a " needs be" in the thoughts of God 
for this " little and little." Their enemies were not 
to diminish too rapidly in proportion to their own 
increase. Unless for each man driven out, there 
were found an Israelite to fill his place, then some- 
thing worse than a man would take it — " the beasts 
of the field!' Even so our Lord has taught us that 
when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, and finds 
upon his return to his house, that however swept and 
garnished, it is empty, with no master to defend it, 
he not only enters himself, but takes with him seven 
other still more wicked spirits : " and the last state of 
that man is worse than the first." f 

Yet it is a lesson which the world is slow in learn- 
ing, that to rescue any part of our being, any of our 



* " Joshua made war with the kings of Canaan a long time 
judging from chap. xiv. 7, 10, as much as seven years, though 
Josephus Ant. v. 1, 19, speaks of five. From the words, 'The 
Lord hath kept me alive these forty -five years,' Theodoret 
justly infers that the conquest of Canaan by Joshua was com- 
pleted in seven years, since God spake these words towards the 
end of the second year after the exodus from Egypt, and, there- 
fore, thirty-eight years before the entrance into Canaan." — Keil 
and Dclitzsch oil Joshua, pp. 123, 149, 

f Matt. xii. 43-45. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 2 53 

faculties and powers from the service of sin, without 
having them at once occupied by the Spirit, is to ex- 
pose ourselves to still worse danger. Such energy of 
evil in filling all vacant spaces, might perhaps go far 
to explain the sudden lapse of God's servants into 
some great sin, which now and then startles the 
Church. St. Paul has sketched for us in one of his 
own strong antitheses the safe procedure — " As ye 
have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, 
and to iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield your 
members servants to righteousness, unto holiness.* 
He could not counsel any putting off of the old man, 
apart from the putting on of the new. 

But secondly, although the conquest was a work 
of time, there was to be a limit to it. The history 
abundantly confirms the promise of a mighty destruc- 
tion. In the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Joshua, 
we have the statistics and summary of the war — "All 
the kings were thirty and one ;" — " Joshua made war 
a long time with all those kings ;" — " So Joshua took 
the whole land ;" — "And the land rested from war." 
The " until " of the promise was no endless chain ; 
the warfare was as sure to be limited as it was to be 
by little and little. 

And so also read the promises of victory which the 
Gospel gives to us. " The God of peace shall bruise 
Satan under your feet shortly ;"\ " The God of all 
grace who hath called us unto His eternal glory by 

* Rom. vi. 19. t Rom. xvi. 20. 



254 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile , make 
you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."* And 
with this promise, the experience of some, at least, 
agreed. The beloved disciple wrote to young men, 
in terms which show plainly that a whole life is not 
required for victory — " I have written unto you, young 
men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abid- 
eth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one."\ 
That in the experience of many, the land never rests 
from war, except now and then to enjoy some brief 
Truce of God, is to be charged solely to their unfaith- 
fulness, and by no means to His purpose. The sub- 
sequent history proves, however, that this rest was no 
immunity from danger apart from their fidelity ; and 
that subject remnants of their enemies in their own 
borders, or hostile fugitives without, were capable of 
becoming at any moment, snares, and traps, and 
scourges in their sides, and thorns in their eyes.J 

The third point to note in this Promise of God, 
that meantime His people should be constant victors, 
is the most important of all — " There shall no man 
be able to stand before thee, until thou have de- 

* i Pet. v. 10. 

t i John ii. 14. Of course this does not apply to that fullest 
sense of the Conquest which is realized only in the Resurrection ; 
nor yet to the Conquest set before the entire Church. In regard 
to the latter a most interesting parallel exists between the seven 
nations of Canaan and the seven conquests of the seven churches 
in the Revelation. 

I Josh, xxiii. 13. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



255 



stroyed them." In all those years of warfare, it is a 
striking fact that, with the exception of the defeat at 
Ai, where they justly forfeited the promise, we are 
not told of the loss of a single man, nor of any even 
temporary defeat. Even if we can not positively as- 
sume that these were bloodless victories on their side, 
we have here at least one of the significant silences of 
Holy Scripture. The career of Israel in Canaan was 
a career of continual conquest. 

And herein it is that the good fight of Faith differs 
from the contest that is all too common ; for a con- 
tinued conflict being admitted even, in this case, it 
might be asked, Where then is the advantage ? It is 
this, the advantage of constant victory over frequent 
defeat ; for a constant victory it will be if we keep the 
faith. Never yet did the Captain of the host of the 
Lord lose a single battle. Nay, more, the good 
soldier of Christ Jesus learns to welcome the sight of 
his enemies, knowing that it really means larger posses- 
sions ; learns to "count it all joy, when he falls into 
divers temptations," knowing that it means completer 
triumph. Of that old warfare in Canaan, it stands 
written, "It was of the lord to harden their hearts, 
that they should come against Israel in battle, that 
He might destroy them utterly, and that they might 
have no favor." * Even so, it is of the lord that the 
evil hitherto lying latent in our nature should be 
discerned ; it is of the Lord that the trials even 

* Josh. xi. 20. 



256 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING 



league themselves together; for it is that the evil 
may be dislodged and destroyed, and that the domin- 
ion of Grace may be enlarged. 

While the good Fight of Faith may be regarded 
as almost synonymous with the work of Sanctifica- 
tion, it may be well to trace the application of these 
lessons more definitely under that head. The word 
Sanctification {'kyiaciioq), which occurs only ten times in 
the New Testament, is rendered in half that number 
by another word in our version — Holiness. So again, it 
is simply the same allied term (dyiog), which is rendered 
holy and saint, as is the corresponding verb (tyidfa) 
by Jiallow and sanctify. But none of them appear, 
from their context, to be held to a single fixed mean- 
ing. Christians are addressed as saints, and epistles 
are written to the sanctified, when they were evi- 
dently far from being in a state of practical purity. 
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find a key to the 
right understanding of this ; where first we read — ■ 
" We have been sanctified, through the offering of the 
body of Jesus Christ, once for all ; "* and very soon 
after this, " For by one offering, He hath perfected 
forever them who are being sanctified." f So then He 
hath sanctified, while we are being sanctified. He hath 
perfected, while we are going on tmto perfection. 
The " once-for-all-ness" marked the power of Christ's 
Cross ; while our practical partaking of it, is plainly 
a process. But everywhere, the ultimate standard 
* Heb. x. 10. t Heb. x. 14. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



25; 



even of this, is to be " sanctified wholly," and to 
" perfect holiness." 

Those who claim that entire sanctification is to be 
instantaneously received, would appear to confound 
the two uses of the word. In its highest sense, as 
wrought out by the Sanctifier, and so imputed by 
the Head of the Body to all its members, it must be 
entire ; but such a word can not be used of a process 
which is still going on. 

Growth in Grace is put under the condition of all 
growth — demanding time. Nor do the Scriptures 
speak of any state of entire purity, from which we 
grow on into maturity. It is the purity itself, which 
is to mature, as St. John tells us, that every man that 
hath the blessed hope of seeing Jesus as He is, puri- 
fieth himself, even as He is pure. He plainly speaks 
of a continuous work, with which the constant exhor- 
tations of all the Apostles agree. They give us no 
single precept, enjoining any such sudden attainment ; 
and they leave no record of any such experience. It 
is noticeable that those who claim such entire sancti- 
fication as a present experience, are always obliged to 
limit it in other ways, as extending only to the Affec- 
tions, to the Will, or to " the essence of the soul," and 
thus they deprive themselves of the proper term for 
expressing its practical completeness. As to another 
limit which has been often set — our consciousness — 
an Apostle has given us some solemn thoughts on 
that head — " I am conscious to myself of no delin- 



258 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

quency; but I am not hereby justified ; but He that 
judgeth me is the Lord." * It is true, that only the 
evil which comes within the range of our conscious- 
ness, can be overcome ; but our responsibility extends 
far beyond this, and includes the most diligent culti- 
vation of the conscience. 

As great confusion of thought has thus arisen 
from the inaccurate use of the word Sanctification, 
so has still more confusion sprung from loose and 
unscriptural definitions of sin. The Scriptures 
give us three — ranging from the negative to the 
positive, from the lowest to the highest estimate of 
it. For as we grow more spiritual we grow more sen- 
sitive to sin. Our perception of it will advance very 
much in the order of these definitions. 

I. " Sin is the transgression of the Law." 

II. " All unrighteousness is sin." 

III. " Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." 

We are first convicted of special acts of sin. Then 
we become troubled at the absence of positive right- 
eousness ; and it is the sin in our nature that we rec- 
ognize. Finally, we advance to the full meaning of 
sin, taught in the very word itself — i. e., missing the 
mark. Wherever we see ourselves not yet trans- 
formed by this renewal of our minds, whatever it be 
that is still unlike our Lord, whatever deed or word 
or thought reaches not high enough as yet, for the 
holy harmony of doing God's will on earth as it is 

* 1 Cor. iv. 4. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 



259 



done in heaven, that to the cultivated conscience, 
coming to share His thought in all things, even that 
is now our sin. 

Another nice distinction is drawn in the Word of 
God between sin and temptation. It is often claimed, 
under the system already referred to, that the very 
"roots of evil are so eradicated" in that "instanta- 
neous sanctification," that temptation comes to the 
saint, as to his Saviour, " solely from without." Yet 
it is to saints that the Apostle James writes : " Every 
man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own 
lust, and enticed." * But then how carefully he goes 
on to show, that this outcome of our own nature is 
not counted by the Lord as sin, till it is further de- 
veloped. " Then lust, having conceived, bringeth 
forth sin."f Only the consent of our will turns 
temptation into sin. 

A like distinction is drawn between our confession 
of sin, and our condemnation for it. As to the con- 
demnation for sin, God is graciously pleased to own 
our renewed will, and to disown our old nature — 
allowing us to take the same view. " It is no more I 
that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."J " There is 
. ... no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
Jesus."§ And yet His Holy Spirit must convict us 
even of the sin which dwelleth in us, and the lust 
that enticeth us ; even their presence in us calls for a 
* Jas. i. 14. f Jas. i. 15. 

% Rom. vii. 17. § Rom. viii. 1. 



2 6o THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Deliverer. There must be, upon our side, a hearty 
confession of them as they come to light — a fresh 
claiming of the cleansing of the blood of Christ, and 
then a going forward in His name to their conquest. 
We are told by St. Paul that if we would thus " dis- 
cern ourselves, we should not be condemned."* This 
discerning in the light of the Spirit will bring to view 
not merely temptation, but also our neglected duties, 
our careless ways, our unsanctified habits, our neg- 
lected privileges. These will seem set before us as 
enemies, many and mighty, to be overcome. And 
along with these we must constantly consider our sins 
of ignorance as calling for both confession and con- 
quest. " Though he wist it not, yet is he guilty,"f 
is the plain decree of justice — to be met only by the 
decree of Mercy — "If we confess our sins, He is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness."^: Our career in the con- 
quest of the Land of promise, may therefore be re- 
garded as a constant discerning of ourselves — a con- 
stant coming to the Light, that must still convince, 
though it be not to condemn, and so a constant over- 
coming by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word 
of our testimony. 

And thus the Christian who has not yet in a prac- 
tical sense been sanctified wholly, may in the mean- 
time be " preserved blameless?' Such a distinction is 
clearly presented in the Scriptures. " The very God 

* i Cor. xi. 31. t Lev. v. 17. \ 1 John i. 9. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 2 6l 

of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your 
whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blame- 
less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do 
it."* So St. Paul prays. But the Apostle Jude goes 
further still, and commends the sanctified, and " pre- 
served in Jesus Christ," " unto Him that is able to 
keep them from falling, and to present them faultless 
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."f 
So then we maybe blameless without being faultless : 
we are to be blameless now ; we shall be faultless 
hereafter: — "preserved blameless," and "presented 
faultless." Such is the blessed and glorious ideal 
which is set before the Christian, and which both the 
ability and faithfulness of God are pledged to make 
real. If it be asked what practical difference there is 
in such a distinction, we may take as an example a 
little child whose loving heart is bent upon pleasing 
her mother. Her first little task of needlework is put 
into her hands. But the little fingers are all unskilled, 
nor has she any thought of the nicety required ; still, 
with intense pleasure she sets stitch after stitch, until 
at last she brings it to her mother ; she has done her 
best, and does not dream of failure. And the mother 
taking it, sees two things : — one is a work as faulty as 
it well can be, with stitches long and crooked ; and 
the other is that smiling, upturned face with its 
sweet consciousness of love. Not for anything could 

* i Thess. v. 23, 24. f Jude 24. 



2 62 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

she coldly criticise that work. She thinks of the 
effort to please, and how little she could expect in a 
first attempt. It is the child's best for the time be- 
ing. So she commends her, and even praises the 
poor, imperfect work, and then gently and most lov- 
ingly shows her how she may do still better. The 
child is blameless, but her work not faultless. It will 
be nearer and nearer faultless, as day after day she 
gathers skill, and even new ideas of care and faithful- 
ness in her tasks ; but still in her mother's eyes she 
is at first, as well as at last, her blameless child. 
And surely every believing, loving child of God, may 
regard this blessing of blamelessness, not as one to be 
finally reached, but as one to enjoy all along the way. 
Only in this case, there will be not only a life more 
and more holy, but a heart growing purer and purer 
in its love. And precious beyond all price will it be 
day after day of our lives, to hear again and again, our 
Father's acceptance of our work and of ourselves. 
" Blameless, my child — still blameless." And yet 
such a child can not aim at less than His entire ap- 
proval. He will not abuse such a comfort, or count 
it the chief thing; but ever seeing more fully the 
vast importance of all his Father's interests, and His 
earnest desire to make him a workman that needeth 
not to be ashamed, he will even beseech Him not to 
spare His correction, but to show him faithfully every 
fault. 

Such a distinction as this provides for perfect peace 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 263 

with God, but not for any profession of perfection. 
Such a claim as this, not covering the defects of 
which we are yet unconscious, nor the conquest 
which may still be incomplete, does not suggest, as in 
the case of other claims, a painful sense of discrepancy 
between profession and possession. Such a claim, as 
it leaves no room for discouragement, allows none for 
presumption. It is calm and confident, but very 
humble. It keeps its eye on Christ, and the power 
of His resurrection, and it speaks soberly — " Not that 
I have already won, or am already perfect ; but I 
press onward — if indeed I might lay hold on that, for 
which Christ also laid hold on me : I count not my- 
self to have laid hold thereon ; but this one thing I 
do — forgetting that which is behind, and reaching 
forth to that which is before, / press onward, towards 
the mark, for the prize of God's heavenly calling in 
Christ Jesus."* This is its experience, and its simple 
exhortation is — " Let us all, then, who are ripe in 
understanding, be thus minded. "f 

So pass we onward, then, unto our conquest ; little 
by little to drive out our enemies, but still to always 
win our battles, always to overcome ; and even when 
we reach a rest from the long war, still to watch and 
pray lest we enter into temptation ; and still ever 
more fully to possess the land. 

As to the manner of the Conquest, the secret of 
victory is so simple, that a few words may set it forth. 

* Phil. iii. 12-14. f Phil. iii. 15. — As rendered by Conyb:are. 



264 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

It is clearly shown in the capture of the first city : 
"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they 
were compassed about seven days."* In fact, the 
victory was won before they even began — " See, I 
I have given into thine hand Jericho." Day after 
day their faith was disciplined and developed, and 
patience also had her perfect work, till at last came 
the command, " Shout ; for the Lord hath given you 
the city." " It was the shout of Faith, that saw not 
and yet believed ; and that, having believed, at once 
saw the glory of God." 

For us also the real battle has been fought, and we 
can claim an accomplished victory. "Be of good 
courage," said Jesus, "/ have overcome the world:" 
and now "this is the victory that overcometh the 
world, even our faith." f The prince of all these 
powers of evil was met by Him in single combat — 
and this was the issue : " The prince of this world is 
judged :" " Now is the judgment of this world : now 
shall the prince of this world be cast out." % The 
Serpent's head was bruised. Satan is the Saviour's 
vanquished foe, with not a particle of actual power 
to assert against Him in His kingdom, mighty as he 
is in his own. And for us also whose life is in Christ, 
he is a conquered foe — with not a particle of power 
to send one of his darts through the shield of faith. 
But his chief strategy lies in concealing this— in pre- 
senting an unbroken front. He would make us be- 
* Heb xi. 30. f 1 John v. 4. % John xii. 31. 



THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. 265 

iieve that we have still as hard a battle to fight, as 
though Christ had not fought for us. We are charged, 
indeed, not to be ignorant of his devices — we are to 
put on the whole armor of God — but so going forth 
we shall never find a wall so high and strong, that it 
shall not fall down flat at the shout of our Faith. 
We may make war a very long time, and manifold 
may be our enemies ; but the way is the same through- 
out. Whatever God charges us to do, whether it 
seem to be much or little, the Heavenly Captain and 
His host win all our victories. 

What shall be said, then, of that precious Faith 
which our Lord has given us, and endowed with 
such a power ? Faith sees the Land — Faith pre- 
pares itself — Faith passes over — Faith goes from 
strength to strength — Faith waxes valiant in fight 
— Faith has an eye ever on the Captain, to follow 
Him whithersoever He goeth — Faith ever listens, 
for it has received its charge, " Whatsoever He saith 
unto you, do it " — Faith never needs to measure 
walls, or count the giants — Faith sees nothing but 
the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward 
who believe — Faith ponders day and night the ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises — Faith is ever 
saying, u We are well able to overcome /" and Faith* 
ever hears God saying, " He THAT OVERCOMETH 
SHALL INHERIT ALL THINGS." 

12 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 
U ^HERE IS AN ACCURSED THING IN THE MIDST 

A of thee, O Israel : thou canst not stand 

BEFORE THINE ENEMIES, UNTIL YE TAKE AWAY THE 
ACCURSED THING FROM AMONG YOU." — (Josh. vii. 1 3.) 

" The men took of their victuals, and asked 
not counsel at the mouth of the lord." — 
(Josh. ix. 14.) 

The Book of Joshua contains the record of but one 
lost battle : only once does it number the slain of 
Israel. This defeat followed close upon their first 
great victory. Their holy confidence in God sank 
quickly into an unhallowed confidence in themselves: 
Jericho had fallen — what need to put forth all their 
strength against Ai ? 

Thus do our greatest failures often happen in the 
little things of life. We miscalculate the strength of 
the foe ; we fail to spy out the reserved forces. In- 
deed, we mistake, when we think it an easy matter to 
subdue any enemy. How often has it happened, that 

he who has won his signal victory in some great crisis 
(266) 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 267 

of the Church, who has rescued the Truth from the 
teachers of false doctrine, or stormed the entrench- 
ments of Vice, has forthwith failed in some petty do- 
mestic disturbance, in some simple social duty, or in 
a trifling claim of common charity. If there be a 
time in life when we need more than ever to watch 
and pray, lest we enter into temptation, it is the hour 
of success. 

The discouragement, verging upon despair, which 
followed the flight from Ai, shows how the ground of 
faith had been deserted. " The hearts of the people 
melted, and became as water." * Even Joshua, with 
his clothes rent, and dust upon his head, lies flat upon 
his face, and gives himself over to the strange regret — 
" Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on 
the other side Jordan ! " \ 

Who has ever overcome without an Ai ? — a ques- 
tion of fact to be carefully distinguished from the 
question of necessity. And with whom has it not 
been their first temptation, to regard with impatience 
their further ventures upon faith? — as though God 
really left us at liberty to be content with lower 
things, when there are higher set before us ! 

But still more overwhelming to Joshua was the 
sense of Israel's dishonor, as compromising the name 
of God. " O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel 
turneth their backs before their enemies ! . . . , 
and what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name? "if 
* Josh. vii. 5. f Josh. vii. 7. % Josh. vii. 8, 9. 



2 68 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

And what shall any of us think, or say, when we find 
that after all the development and discipline of faith, 
the failure comes ? Shall we charge God with it, as 
not having provided against it ? Shall we still lie flat 
upon our faces, as the sorrow glooms into sullenness? 

Nothing more thoroughly tests our loyalty to God, 
and our regard to His honor instead of our own, than 
our readiness to receive the chastening by which He 
must judge us, when we do not " discern ourselves."* 
As surely as the cause of failure is always found with 
us, so surely is there a remedy with God. " Israel 
hath sinned — therefore, the children of Israel could 
not stand before their enemies : neither will I be with 
you any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing 
from among you." f Thus did the Lord make a clear 
case of this mysterious dispensation. By His decree 
the whole spoil of war was His: all treasure was 
" devoted" to Him ; perverted to their own use, it was 
the "accursed" thing4 It was the accursed use of 
good things that was their sin. 

Thus does the Lord hold His children true unto 
Himself; He compels them to let Him search out 
all hidden, hindering things, as their only way to 
victory. Their short suffering is as nothing to this 
necessity. Their own sense of shame, and even the 
taunts of their enemies, are little things in His eyes, 



* i Cor. xi. 31, 32. t Josh. vii. II, 12. 

% The same word is rendered in our version by both devoted 
and accursed. 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 



269 



compared with the deeper evil. He must teach 
them that they can not serve Him in one sphere, and 
take their own way in another. Any secret using of 
His treasures, apart from His will and blessing, they 
must understand to be sin. Achan had marched 
around Jericho, and had shouted in that great shout 
of faith : in such great matters he could be true to 
God ; — but the mantle, and the gold and silver, why 
should he not have these to enjoy? 

Christianity in this nineteenth century since Christ 
came, has not outgrown the same gross form of temp- 
tation that was the snare of Israel fifteen centuries 
before — " the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." 
There is surely no more crying sin to be found among 
the daughters of the Lord, than their love of display 
in these " goodly Babylonish garments." Beyond all 
that is allowed for comfort, and comeliness, how much 
is coveted for mere display. The evil is in the heart, 
and not in the garment. That mantle of old be- 
longed by right to the Lord ; it was treasure even in 
His sight, and He could have called upon some one 
to wear it, even to His glory. But Achan could not 
— the covetous, the proud, the selfish, never can ; 
they are not pure enough in heart, to take as pure, 
that pattern their Creator set them, when He clothed 
the lilies of the field in all their glory. True, there 
are other bearings of this subject — growing out of 
the present disorder of the world — touching the toil 
and strain enforced upon the heads of families — 



270 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



touching the needs of the poor and of Christ's cause 
— touching the example set for the weak and thought- 
less — touching also great moral questions upon which 
social happiness and purity depend — but these are 
as the husk to this fatal seed of evil. The vital germ 
is " the lust of the eye " — lust seeking to gratify self, 
where love should be glorifying God ! 

Again, there is no more crying sin among the sons 
of God, than that " love of money " which is " the 
root of all evil." Wealth held in trust for the Lord, 
kept as a devoted thing, is not only a blessing, but a 
very necessity in the perfect plan of His providence. 
But gold apart from God, hankered after through the 
pride of life, is still the accursed thing in thy midst, 
O Israel ! Once, it was only a single garment, and a 
few pieces of gold and silver, in the tent of one man. 
Is it the less a sin now, that men do it upon a grand 
scale, and that there is little hiding of the matter ? 
What marvel that God goeth not forth with our ar- 



mies 



And when we remember that these two forms of 
sin — " the lust of the eye, and the pride of life " — 
extend to " all that is in the world," and so class with 
them all that they really represent — when we think 
of God's claim over all things, and of all our persist- 
ent and varied robbery of His dues, with what fear- 
ful force does the charge come home to us in our own 
day — " There is an accursed thing in the midst of 
thee, O Israel : thou canst not stand before thine 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 



271 



enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from 
among you." Alas, that so dear is this accursed 
thing to many, that upon the whole, they choose de- 
feat, rather than to confess the sin, and let this of- 
fending Achan of lust be stoned with stones, and 
burned with fire. 

Another most important lesson lies in the fact, that 
the sin of one involved all. Such a law of organic 
spiritual life is very clearly stated by St. Paul — 
" Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer 
with it ; or one member be honored, all the members 
rejoice with it."* There can plainly, then, be no indi- 
vidual perfection, till the whole Body is perfected. 
Hence Love, with all its tender care one for another, 
is the vital thing it is. The sin and shortcoming of 
one single member, are the suffering and the loss of 
all the other members. God honors to the utmost 
the faith and devotion of each ; but there are heights 
to which they can not attain, save with the help of all. 
Even if the cloven tongue of some Pentecostal gift 
were to alight upon the chosen of the Spirit, yet if 
it met no kindred spark — if it fell only upon the 
damp and chill of unbelief — how surely would it 
expire, with only a brief and ineffectual gleam. 

The sin of Achan — unknown as it was to all but 

himself, and his God, yet troubling a nation — teaches 

us to trace the evil to something more secret than 

mere example. What a study for the thoughtful is 

* 1 Cor. xii. 26. 



272 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



this strange sympathy of soul ! What a solution of 
many a problem ! And how does such a law render 
sin exceeding sinful. Each offence is not only against 
God, and to the injury of our own life, but tells upon 
the life and vigor of the whole Church of Christ. Like 
the healthful body, it may be able to heal the wound, 
or throw off the disease of one part by the rallying of 
the rest ; but at best there is an expenditure of force 
that is needed elsewhere. Every sin is in its essence 
the failure to love God, and to love our brother also. 
All covetousness is idolatry, and all selfishness a stab 
at the life of some one. He that hateth his brother is 
a murderer — not in intent, but act — as truly strikes by 
his hatred the life of his spirit, as a murderer slays 
the body. What a responsibility is ours, therefore, 
when we see our brother sin — not only to rebuke in 
faithful love, but to ask that God will give him life 
again ; seeing that it is not only his life, but our life 
also, and the life of Christ's own Body. 

Among all the rich promises that spring from God's 
forgiving and restoring love, there are few more won- 
derful than this — that He has given us " the Valley 
of Achor for a door of hope." * From that valley, 
which they so named from their sore " trouble," 
Joshua and the people rose up; and soon before his 
spear, outstretched towards that same Ai from which 
they lately fled, twelve thousand of their enemies 
melted away, even all the inhabitants of the place ; 

* Hos. ii. 15. 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 



273 



and fear fell on all who heard it. The one failure 
was never repeated ; and the six and thirty men who 
fell at Ai, give us the only death list of a seven years' 
war. 

When once we have added to our experience of 
God's favor as shown to the willing and obedient, 
that of His faithfulness even in our failure, we come 
up from this dark passage of our trouble and loss, to 
a door that opens wide upon His great Love. We 
gather even cheer from the certainty, that the Lord 
will cleanse us from secret faults. For sin, to a lov- 
ing child of God, is a more fearful thing than any 
suffering for sin. Welcome, then, shall be the disci- 
pline, that put us on the track of its discovery ; for 
so soon as we see it, we are met by this faithful word 
— " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness." How often does it happen in our expe- 
rience, that some one form of trial is strangely reiter- 
ated, until we are tempted to regard it as our fate. 
Is it not rather the voice of the Lord, calling to us 
again and again, until we heed Him, and learn the 
lesson He has set us? When we have learned it, He 
will no more repeat the trial. We learn, moreover, 
from such an experience as this, to anticipate His 
correction, and not compel Him to chasten us Him- 
self. Very weighty is that lesson of St. Paul, and 
given to us in words most fitly chosen* (sadly as they 



* 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32. 
12* 



2/4 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



are marred in our version) — that if we would duly 
discern ourselves — before any doubtful deed — we 
should have no occasion to be judged after it. But 
that failing in this, even our judgment is only the 
chastening of the Lord, that we should not come to 
be condemned with the world. So, then, the Lord 
does not purpose to lead us into any valley of Achor, 
but if we fall into the snare, He provides a way to 
recover ourselves from it — giving us even there a 
door of hope. The two chapters occupied by this 
narrative, are followed by a third, which gives us, 
not indeed another failure, but a great mistake. 

The people lean now to their own understanding, 
as just before they relied upon their own strength. 
The foe fearing to come out longer in open battle, 
approaches them with deceit. Long before, the 
Gibeonites had learned to their cost, from Simeon and 
Levi, a fearful lesson of dishonorable strategy.* Doubt- 
less it was this that suggested a sort of retaliation, 
which God permitted as a sure retribution. " They 
did work wilily." Feigning to come from a far coun- 
try, they entrapped Israel into a friendly league. So 
clear appeared the case, that " the men took of their 
victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the 
Lord." How much erring in judgment is foreshad- 
owed in this simple incident. The instances are com- 
paratively few where the Christian fails and flees 
before a recognized enemy; in by far the greatei 

* Gen. xxxiv. 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 



275 



number he goes astray through the deceitfulness of 
sin.* There was but one Achan, who hearing God's 
command about the dedicated things, went and hid 
them in his tent ; but Joshua and all Israel were 
caught in the snare of the Gibeonites. No warning 
voice from God came to arrest them, for they had 
neglected to seek His counsel, and they must learn 
the peril of it. 

It is often carelessly said, that if we do the best we 
know how to do — acting up to the light we have — 
we are guiltless. 

Such a maxim is not allowed to pass in earthly 
matters. The Captain who doing the best he can at 
the time, runs his ship upon a rock well known to 
seamen, is held responsible for his ignorance. We 
are not only to act up to the light we have, but to 
seek the light and come to the light. Sincerity may 
never dare to claim the same high reward that is 
given to Truth, nor are the immunities of the one 
like the immunities of the other. For every portion 
of the full and rounded Truth of God that is missed 
even by mistaken judgment, some loss is inevitable ; 
and who shall venture to estimate the aggregate of 
that loss to the Church of Christ from the multitude 
of her mistakes, both in doctrine and in practice ? 

* Farrar speaks of Judas even as half concealing - from himselt 
the grossness of his own motives, and adds : " People rarely sin 
under the full glare of self-eonsciousness ; they usually blind 
themselves with false pretexts and specious motives.'' — Farrar's 
Life of Christ, Vol. II., p. 192. 



2 ;6 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

One gleam of comfort, however, we are permitted to 
gather from the old story of the Gibeonites. Inex- 
cusable as was their neglect to seek His counsel, God 
graciously brought out of the evil, somewhat of bless- 
ing. These deceivers of His people should hence- 
forth be their hewers of wood, and drawers of water ; 
— some compensation should be found for what they 
had lost. In the wonderful amends of Grace — even 
in missing the highest mark — the Lord can surely 
put the mistakes of His children among the all things 
that work together for good to them that love Him. 

But far more edifying than to enumerate such mis- 
takes, will it be to consider the provision that is made 
against them. 

Distinct promises of God have pledged to every 
seeking soul His light, and truth, and wisdom. " If 
thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of 
light." " When the Spirit of truth is come, He will 
guide you into the whole truth." — " If any of you 
lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all 
men liberally and upbraideth not ; and it shall be 
given him."* Very plainly, then, must our mistakes 
originate like that of Israel — " We ask not counsel 
at the mouth of the Lord." The contrary of this is, 
however, most commonly claimed — " We did seek it." 
Ah, but did you not first "take of the victuals?" 
That which is often asked of God, is not so much 
His will and way, as His approval of our way. It is 

* Matt. vi. 22 ; John xvi. 13 ; Jas. i. 5. 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 



277 



remarkable how little perplexity as to their duty, 
appears among the saints of the Bible. Especially 
in the Epistles, we find scarcely a trace of uncer- 
tainty as to the way which they should take. But in 
our own day, how common is the cry that men " walk 
in darkness and have no light/' We have no right to 
remain in that darkness. If we love the light, we 
shall find the light. If the windows of my dwelling- 
place be closed with blinds of ignorance, they must 
first be thrown open. If the curtain of prejudice be 
drawn closely down, it must next be put aside. If 
the thin shade of conceit be left, there is still more 
to do — for though I may now have the sunlight, I 
have not the sunshine. If this shade be lifted, and 
yet the window be obscured with frost, or dust, or 
even so thin a film as my own breath, I can not 
have a clear vision of that which lies beyond it. My 
apathy is that frost — my carelessness that dust — my 
selfishness that film. I must look if possible with 
nothing between me and the truth, or if I must look 
through glass, let it be so clear as to be itself invisi- 
ble. But instead of seeking thus until we find, do 
we not hastily take our clew from custom, and chang- 
ing conventionalities, and from human opinion ? It is 
well-known that the Red man who fears the approach 
of the foe, does not listen through the air, where so 
many sounds are stirring, but presses his ear close to 
his mother-earth, and so hears afar off the stealthiest 
tread. So does our ear in its distraction need to list- 



278 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



en, shut off from common channels, and holding it- 
self fast by that Word of truth, which is the choice 
conductor of the will of God. 

It is a prime condition of such wisdom that we 
have a certain affinity with the truth, as a ground of 
receptivity — * He that is of the truth," said the Lord 
Jesus, " heareth my voice." When the secret attrac- 
tions of the soul are false to God, there can be no real 
counsel asked of Him. 

Again, the first step towards knowledge is the con- 
fession of our ignorance. The human understanding 
wholly fails in heavenly things. — It is Love that is 
the great illuminator. — " If any man think that he 
under st andetJi anything, he knowctJi nothing yet as he 
ought to know. But if any man love God, the same 
is known of Him"* In His own knowing of us, all 
our knowledge originates ; first of Himself, then of 
all things. Closely akin to the conceit of our own 
understanding, a veritable Gibeonite in its clouted 
shoes, and equal to deceiving even a Joshua, is that 
habit of ^//"-examination which is so often practiced. 
As though the heart were not deceitful above all 
things, we assume the ability to discover its depths, 
and to analyze its mixture of motives. That is a 
work for God alone. There lies a world-wide space 
between the old Delphian oracle — " Know thyself," — 
and that wisdom that coming from above teaches us 
to cry, " Search me, O God, and know my heart /" 

* i Cor. viii. 2, 3. 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 



279 



Another all-important condition of our protection 
from error, is that we should seek not only counsel, 
but the close companionship of the Counsellor. We 
are directed not to a mere written word of wisdom, 
but to a Wisdom who walks among men ; not to the 
bare letter of any law, but to a Living Law that has 
come down to lead us safely. Listen to that Voice 
that in due time becomes the Incarnate Word — 
" Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. / am under- 
standing, /have strength Blessed is the man 

that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting 
at the posts of my doors."* Listen as it calls again to 
still closer intimacy, — " When thou walkest, let it 
guide thee ; when thou liest down, let it guard thee ; 
and at thy waking, let it talk with thee."f 

Our need is so constant and so varied, that only 
the Spirit of God can supply us with wisdom. In so 
guiding us He will make His own Word our lamp 
wherever that is possible. Where it is not, He will 
point out some other way. His own Word itself again 
and again throws us back upon this immediate guid- 
ance of the Spirit. For how many are the emergencies 
of life, concerning which that Word is silent, and can 
no more answer us than it could have told the Camp ot 
Israel from what country came the Gibeonites. There- 
fore, while God put His holy Law in the Ark of the 
Covenant, He put His Urim also in the Breast-Plate 
of the High Priest ; and so flashed from time to time 
* Prov. viii. 14, 34. t Prov. vi. 22. 



2 8o THE FULNESS OF BLESSIXG. 

the guiding ray upon the perplexities of His people. 
Moreover, how many messages, for the man, and for 
the moment, did His Prophets carry from His mouth. 
All this He gave before the great day of Pentecost. 
How " the Holy Ghost spake" thenceforth, how He 
taught and counselled, is proved by almost every 
page of that " second treatise" in which St. Luke, who 
had written in a former the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
gave next, the Gospel of His Holy Ghost. 

But it is the thought of some that while such a 
provision indeed exists, yet such is our weakness, that 
practically it avails but little — that while so many 
have sought such guidance, and forthwith fallen into 
dangerous delusions, it is much safer to forego it, and 
to keep closely by the Word of God. No such substi- 
tution is possible ; and if we thus slight the Spirit, we 
do dishonor to some of the strongest sayings of Holy 
Scripture, and forfeit utterly a priceless privilege. 

For the Lord has not mocked us by first promising 
that He would speak to us with His own Voice, 
and then failing to provide the hearing ear. Indeed, 
the very pith of the promise, is this accuracy in 
knowing His Voice. He does not say, as some would 
seem to suppose, " I will go before My sheep — I will 
call very clearly to them to follow Me, but the foolish 
sheep will not be able to understand Me " — but this 
is what He says of the True Shepherd, " The sheep 
follow YWm for they know His voice. And a stranger 






FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 28 1 

will they not follow, but will flee from him : for they 
know not the voice of strangers."* 

And yet we can not ignore the fact, that many and 
even monstrous have been the mistakes of those who 
claimed to know His voice. But one solution of this 
seems at all satisfactory. They have never been train- 
ed by holy familiarity to really know it. We learn to 
distinguish human voices with perfect accuracy ; and 
not only so, but their slightest changes can convey 
the most delicate shades of thought and feeling to 
the well-trained ear. Our spiritual senses are not less 
sure, but they also require their training. The little 
babe as it first begins this great art of listening, can 
not tell a human voice from any other sound ; but 
soon in the darkest midnight one voice is unmistak- 
able. So the wife, sitting it may be in the twilight, 
hears a step along the hall, and then a voice, that can 
be no other than his for whom she has been waiting. 
But if as she rises, saying confidently- — " It is my hus- 
band " — you ask her how she knows that voice, what 
can she do but smile and say simply, but more surely, 
" I know it f" She can not give you the secret ; nor 
could you ever learn it, save as she has learned it. 
Apart from being much with Christ, above all apart 
from loving Him, we can not know His voice. But 
so loving, so following closely, we have His own sure 
promise that the stranger can never deceive us ; though 

* John x. 4, 5. 



282 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

the hands that touch us seem the very hands of Esau, 
yet we shall know that the voice is indeed the voice 
of Jacob. 

Any difficulties which may still be attached to this 
privilege, are not beyond the difficulties of all spiritual 
attainments, and however impossible with men, per- 
fectly possible with God. So that we are without 
excuse as the flock of God, if we do not clearly know 
our Shepherd's Voice ; and therefore know the wiles of 
Satan. His devices are so many, and even when old, 
putting on such new disguises, that had we to learn 
them one by one, we should never feel secure. But 
fto know One Voice with certainty, solves in the sim- 
plest possible manner the entire difficulty : if it be 
the voice of any stranger, we know that we must not 
listen. We must not even listen to him who comes 
to accuse us of sin, if still it be the voice of a stranger, 
and not the voice of our Beloved. Satan is the great 
Accuser : he accuses us before God, and he accuses us 
to our own hearts — sometimes justly, as well as in- 
justly; but in no case have we any right to parley 
with him at all. We are not even to learn about our 
sins from Satan ; for he comes that he may drag us down 
if possible, to discouragement and despair. The re- 
proofs of Him who loves us are entirely faithful ; 
only we may be very sure that when He has some- 
what against us, He will not send Satan as His mes- 
senger to say so, but will correct us Himself, with His 






FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 283 

own loving correction — cleansing and healing, even 
while He chastens us. 

But the Spirit has other ways of guidance than by 
His voice. " I will guide thee with Mine eye."* As 
the eye speaks more swiftly than the lips, so can it 
speak more sweetly, or more severely. The quick 
glance gathers His sanction — " approved of Christ," or 
if need be that He turn and look upon us, His silent 
reproof sends us out, like Peter, to weep bitterly. 

Again we are told of another spiritual sense : — 
Isaiah prophesied of Christ that the Spirit of the 
Lord should rest upon Him, and make Him " of 
quick understanding." f The root from which this 
word is taken, and still more plainly, the context, 
show us what is signified. The " sight of His eyes," 
and the " hearing of His ears," were not enough — 
not even by these would He judge ; but by another 
sense more subtle, swift, and sure — even as when He 
" smelled a sweet savor " from Noah's altar and the 
cleansed earth. How much of our outward protec- 
tion from danger is left to this sense of smell, as the 
keenest and readiest of all. Everything may be fair 
and beautiful to the eye, but as the sickening effluvia 
is wafted to us, we flee as from a pestilence. The 
Holy Spirit resting upon us, we shall become like 
Christ, of that " quick understanding " which will 
prove one of our chief securities from evil. The odor 
of false doctrine can not escape us, and the very 
* Ps. xxxii. 8. f Is. xi. 3. 



284 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

scent of sin will keep us from its touch ; while we 
turn in all haste to Him, all whose garments smell of 
myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. 

The combined result of all this training is given us 
by St. Paul in one of those delicate touches, which he 
knew so well where to put upon his great landscapes of 
Truth : " And this I pray, that your love may abound 
yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judg- 
ment" (AloOrjoic)* The word which he uses here 
stands quite alone in the Bible, and denotes a sphere 
of judgment beyond its common range. St. Paul 
teaches us that there are Spiritual ^Esthetics : that 
besides knowledge, there is a nice perception, a ready 
tact, a quick sense of the proprieties and fitnesses of 
things, so important for us as to be the proper object 
of most earnest prayer. He who could not call His 
outward creation good, till He had woven in the 
wondrous woof with His swift shuttles of Light and 
Sound, can surely give to none of us this testimony, 
" that we please Him," till He has trained us to a like 
harmony — until in our souls can be seen the mellow 
toning of all the tints of truth, and from our lives be 
heard the rhythm of all holy works and ways. 

The perfect provision of our Lord, allows plainly, 
no liberty for the life that is risen in Him, to be a 
failure, or to be marred even with mistakes — allows 
even no liberty for terror, or anxious fear of these. 
Child of God, dwelling in the secret place of the 

* Phil. i. q. 



FAILURE AND MISTAKE. 



285 



Most High, thou canst not be afraid ! A thousand 
may fall at thy side, or even ten thousand at thy 
right hand, but — " Surely He shall deliver thee from 
the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pesti- 
lence." And not only so, but the same loving care 
extending to the slightest of thy steps, " He shall 
give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all 
thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands 
lest thou trip thy foot against a stone." For all 
thy need of His strength, " His truth shall be thy 
shield and buckler ; " and for all thy need of His 
tenderness, " He shall cover thee with His feathers, 
and under His wings shalt thou trust ? 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 

a /"pHERE REMAINETH YET VERY MUCH LAND TO 
* BE POSSESSED." — (Josh. xiii. i.) 

" HOW LONG ARE YE SLACK TO GO TO POSSESS 
THE LAND WHICH THE LORD GOD OF YOUR FA- 
THERS HATH GIVEN YOU?" — (Josh, xviii. 3.) 

With the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Joshua 
we enter another section, which treats of the division 
of the land of Canaan, as the former treated of its 
conquest. The distribution of the country, varying 
widely as it did in natural advantages, and, therefore, 
sure to tell strongly upon the future character of the. 
Tribes, was too important to be left to human decision. 
The Lord Himself had a choice for each. His plan 
for His people was as perfect in all its details, as it 
was grand and comprehensive. The charge respect- 
ing this division ran thus : " Ye shall divide the land 
by lot for an inheritance among your families : and 
to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and 
to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance : every 
man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot 

falleth ; according to the tribes of your fathers ye 

(286) 



CHOICE POSSESSIOXS. 287 

shall inherit."* Yet the very terms of the lot left 
much to the judgment of those entrusted with the 
task, who had been previously designated by the 
Lord ; — Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and one prince of 
every tribe.")* The history shows us how many modi- 
fications of the original allotment were made, and 
what regard was had to special requests ; so that finally 
the actual settlement was the result not only of the 
Lord's appointment, but also of the decision of the 
judges, and to some extent of their own desires — the 
same mingling, in fact, of divine and human agencies 
which we find everywhere in the developments of 
life. 

This distribution of the Land while less marked by 
stirring incidents than the Conquest, was not inferior 
in importance, and has a large space allotted to it. 
Indeed, looking at the minuteness of this record, and 
that of the prophecies given here and there in Patri- 
archal blessings and high visions of God, we may well 
question if its mere geographical import has yet been 
appreciated. The future of this earth will make all 
these enigmas clear. As a man plants his Estate, 
and plants for far-off years, and gives to each tree 
the soil and situation it requires — so has the Lord 
planted this earth, and certainly with reference to a 
time not yet fulfilled ; for when has Israel taken its 
priestly position among the families of the earth ? 
The dying song of Moses waits yet, in part, for its 
* Num. xxxiii. 54. t Num. xxxiii. 17-29. 



288 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

accomplishment : " When the Most High divided 
to the nations their inheritance, when He separ- 
ated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the 
people according to the number of the children of 
Israel."* 

But passing from this to the spiritual lessons to 
be here gathered, we find in the first Epistle to the 
Corinthians a passage not unlike this allotment of 
the land : " There are varieties of Spiritual Gifts, but 
the same Spirit gives them all ; and they are given 
for various ministrations, but all to serve the same 
Lord Jesus ; and the inward working whereby they 
are wrought is various, but they are all wrought in 
every one of those who receive them, by the working 
of the same God. But the gift whereby the Spirit 
becomes manifest, is given to each for the profit of 
all. To one is given by the Spirit the utterance of 
Wisdom, to another the utterance of Knowledge, 
according to the working of the same Spirit ; to an- 
other, the power of Faith through the same Spirit ; 
to another, the gifts of Healing through the same 
Spirit ; to another, the powers which work Miracles ; 
to another, the gift of Prophecy ; to another, the dis- 
cernment of Spirits; to another, varieties of Tongues; 
to another, the interpretation of Tongues. But all 
these gifts are wrought by the working of that one 
and the same Spirit, who distributes them to each 

* Deut. xxxii. 8. See on this subject a most suggestive vol- 
ume, "Israel's Future," by Rev. Capel Molyneux. 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 289 

according to His will."* Thus a law like that which 
links in amity the nations of the earth, by the special 
wealth of each in produce and in art, was to link in 
holy charity the inheritors of Christ's great kingdom. 

Yet this distribution admits the same practical 
modifications as did that of old. It appears more 
than probable that a basis for our spiritual gifts is 
provided in the individuality that is mapped out for 
each by the laws of transmission, in which we also 
inherit " according to the tribes of our fathers." 
Thus far it is " the lot cast into the lap," the whole 
disposing of which is of the Lord. But how much 
that narrows or enlarges the natural boundary of 
one's gifts, depends upon the care and the decisions 
of others. Again, in spiritual, as in natural things, 
our own earnest desires, and above all our faithful im- 
provement of the talents given, are allowed a large 
influence. So that our lot is no portion thrust upon 
us, but rather that which is set before us. 

It is indeed the side of human responsibility, and 
not God's secret decrees, that is first of all presented 
in the seven chapters devoted to this subject : — 
" There remaineth yet very much land to be pos- 
sessed." 

And who can read, with any thoughtfulness, the 
records of the Apostolic period, without recognizing 
the importance attached to the gifts of the Spirit ; and 
at the same time admitting, in view of such an enu- 

* 1 Cor. xii. 4-1 1 — (Conybeare's rendering). 
J 3 



290 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



meration of them as that above cited, that the Church 
of Christ has scarcely any present possession of them. 
While the qualifications for the Apostolic office were 
plainly exceptional, and the gift of tongues is in- 
stanced as designed for a sign rather than service, yet 
taking these gifts as a whole, there is not a hint in 
Holy Scripture of their temporary use, and subse- 
quent withdrawal ; and without such an authority 
against it, it is but simply reasonable to regard the 
gifts of God as given in perpetuity to His Church. 
Nor dare we claim that the blessed truth of His be- 
stowal, is a whit altered by the sad fact of our failure 
in receptive faith. 

Joshua was old and well stricken in years when the 
Lord reminded him of the neglect of his people to 
possess the land ; indeed, it would even appear that 
some of the possessions once theirs had relapsed to 
the enemy. But what was their delay and loss to 
ours? For nearly nineteen centuries the Church has 
had her Mighty Conqueror, and her Land of Promise; 
but while advancing here and there, what hold has 
she at large upon this vast heritage? Mental gifts 
have indeed been recognized and received often all 
possible culture ; but how often have spiritual gifts — 
God's own special gifts — been given over to suspicion, 
and sarcasm, and scorn ? It does not furnish the least 
excuse for this, that there has been so much of false 
pretence, and even imposture, and so much conse- 
quent delusion ; for whatever of Truth God has given 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 



291 



us, we are bound to take fearlessly, however counter- 
feited or perverted : still further, there will be coun- 
terfeits and perversions until we take it.* Error 
always thrives upon neglected Truth. How often it 
happens that in such errors we see the distorted and 
preposterous shadows of Truth before her light has 
fully risen. Again, there may be another solution of 
a certain class of errors which seem to contain a por- 
tion of truth. The basis only of such spiritual gifts 
having been laid in our nature at our birth, as a body 
prepared for a soul — this, if the real gift be not re- 
ceived from God's own Spirit, will still remain as a 
certain blind abortive power, working irregularly and 
fruitlessly. Had the Church of Christ retained her 
spirituality, she might never have been vexed with so- 
called Spiritualism. Had she had more simple faith, 
she would never have witnessed such silly credulity. 

It is precisely these special personal gifts of the 
Spirit, rather than the more general blessings of the 
Gospel, that find their symbol in this distribution. 
All that is common in the heritage depends for de- 
velopment upon that which is peculiar ; and it is this 
dependence, which renders the right reception of 
these powers a matter of such importance. The 
Church can only reach her true estate, as each one 

* Christlieb, in the Preface to his '* Modern Doubt and Christian 
Belief," says wisely — " Error is always assuredly a mixture of 
truth and falsehood, nor can be overcome so long as the elements 
of truth which it contains are unacknowledged, and not carefully 
separated from what is falsa." (See p. xi.) 



292 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



uses that gift which God has given for this very pur- 
pose : — " He gave some as Apostles ; and some as 
prophets ; and some as evangelists ; and some as pas- 
tors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
body of Christ : till we all come in the unity of the 
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto 
a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ .-"* — this for the positive gain ; and 
for the negative, a deliverance thus, and only thus, 
from all that is false and fanatical ; — " That we hence- 
forth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and 
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the 
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they 
lie in wait to deceive." f 

But now let us gather up in order other, but often 
accordant lessons of the distribution of the Land. 
The first tribes mentioned are those of Reuben and 
Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, on the east of 
Jordan. Their inheritance was not given them by 
lot, and although included in the larger grant that 
was made to Abraham, it was not in that portion 
which at this time was assigned to them by the Lord 
— the land of Canaan.^ While awaiting the end of 
the forty years, two of the tribes had settled upon 
Gilead as their future home, and preferred a request 
for this to Moses, with no attempt to conceal their 
motive : " The country is a land for cattle, and thy 

* Eph. iv. 11-13. t Eph. iv. 14. \ See Num. xxxiv. 1-12. 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 



293 



servants have cattle."* Their choice resembled that 
of Lot, who would have the well-watered plain, how- 
ever near to Sodom. Moses was justly displeased, 
and saw clearly the tendency of such falling off from 
the great advance awaiting them, likening it to the 
sin of the spies in discouraging other hearts. Upon 
their promise to go over with their brethren, and help 
to fight their battles, after which they would return, 
Moses acceded to their wish rather than approved it. 
It very soon appeared how this choice exposed them 
to indifference and danger. In the sublime Song of 
Deborah we trace one of the first of these results : — 

" At the brooks of Reuben were great resolutions of heart. 
Why remainest thou between the hurdles, 
To hear the piping of the flocks ? 
At the brooks of Reuben were great projects of heart, 
Gilead rests on the other side of the Jordan."f 

And so they had come rapidly to the pass, when 
their patriotism could evaporate in good resolutions 
and grand projects ; when the soft shepherd's pipe 
could seduce them from the stern summons of the 
Trumpet. Further on we find that, exposed as they 
were to the advance of foreign enemies, their cities 
were the first to surrender ; after which their idolatry 
and consequent captivity hastened apace.J Yet Reu- 
ben was Israel's first-born, and who can say what lot 
God held for him. But he could not wait for the 



* Num. xxxii. 4. t Judges v. 15-17 — Keil and Delitzsch. 

% 1 Chron. v. 25, 26. 



294 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



slow giving of God. It was not the sin of him who 
sold his birthright for a mess of pottage ; yet he who 
had chosen only a place for cattle, could never be 
chosen by God to furnish either prophet, judge, or 
king, to the house of Israel. 

" Bring us not over Jordan," is still the entreaty of 
many a Christian. Ask us not to give up these 
worldly advantages : let our possessions lie among 
the things of earth : has not godliness the promise 
of the life that now is ? We will not fail to help on 
the cause of Christ ; we will be loyal to Him and to 
His Church ; but ask us not to go further ; we are 
content to take up a lower position. And God may 
hearken to them in this — giving them their desire, 
even while He sends " leanness into their soul." 
Alas, for the high hopes of all whose chief care is 
for cattle ! Sooner or later they will learn that the 
Lord Jesus said not in vain, " Beware of covetous- 
ness ; for a man's life consisteth not in the abun- 
dance of the things which he possesseth." 

And yet while giving up all selfish choice, to let 
God choose our inheritance for us, we are at the same 
time even commanded to " Covet earnestly the best 
gifts."* Thus we find Caleb asking for one of the 
choicest portions, and receiving it as the first inherit- 
ance over Jordan ; at the same time reminding 
Joshua of the events of forty-five years before, and 
of the good word which he had brought according as 

* i Cor. xii. 31. 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 



295 



it was in his heart ; for deep conviction and a con- 
science that held him true to this in his confession, had 
left no room in this noble heart for the cowardice of the 
ten spies. What memories must have revived in these 
two men, as he went on to say, " Thou knowest the 
thing which the Lord spake concerning me and thee, 
in Kadesh-Barnea :" — No need to cast the lot for 
Caleb ! — he had known all those years where his pos- 
sessions lay : — " Now, therefore, give me this moun- 
tain, whereof the Lord spake in that day."* 

Long before he saw it, Hebron must have been 
dear to him by all hallowed associations. It was an 
old city when Abraham pitched his tent in the plain of 
Mamre, which is in Hebron.f It was there that Jehovah 
and His angels visited him. It was there that in bit- 
ter bereavement, he bought the only spot that was 
his by earthly title — a grave in which to bury his 
dead out of his sight. There he himself was buried. 
There Isaac came to sojourn in old age, and in his 
turn be buried. To the same tomb had been borne, 
in solemn state, the embalmed body of Israel. The 
spot itself was one of rare beauty; the hill — which 
still bears an ancient oak called " the Patriarch " — 
overlooks a picturesque and fertile valley, and trav- 
ellers tell us of the varied charms that complete the 
picture, in their most glowing language. But delight- 
ful as was the spot, it was the most difficult of all to 
win. Its name at that time marked it as the abode 



* Josh. xiv. 6-12. t Gen. xiii. 18. 



296 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

of giants— " Kirjath-arba, the city of Arba, the father 
of Anak." The sight of the Anakims had brought no 
dismay to the youthful heart of Caleb; and now 
while strong men had died in the wilderness, he still 
kept the undiminished vigor of his prime. Moreover, 
the Lord was with him : — " I shall be able to drive 
them out, as the Lord said ; " — " And Joshua blessed 
him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh 
Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore be- 
came the inheritance of Caleb, because that he wholly 
followed the Lord God of Israel."* Henceforth, no 
longer the city of the giants, it was to bear that name 
which signified Communion, Fellowship; — as the 
Arabs call it to this day, " The friend of God." Nor 
is it surely without its meaning in a Book where names 
are so significant and typical, that it was at Hebron 
that David was anointed King of all Israel, and that 
there he reigned seven years before his throne was set 
up at Jerusalem. Blessings gather like a halo, around 
the very dwelling-place of him who wholly follows 
the Lord his God. 

And still God has His choice possessions ; and He 
gives them still to the "willing and obedient." They 
belong to those who, while others are doubting or 
denying His Word of promise, still serve Him stead- 
fastly in all good conscience. Such a faith fears not 
to claim its possessions. Nor does it marvel when 
evil is heard saying : 

* Josh. xiv. 13, 14. 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 



" I thought the best, perverted, would be worst." 



297 



And so it turns not back from the hope of recovering 
God's primeval blessing, where all seems given over to 
the curse. Man's noblest powers and privileges are 
ever the first to be seized by Satan for his stronghold ; 
but the Spirit of God is well able to dispossess him, 
though like the three Anakims, he sit there in his 
giant trinity of evil, keeping his goods in peace. 
Nothing in man has suffered loss like that which is 
highest in him, because most like God. Instead of 
that holy love that was to hold him with all his heart 
and strength to the Source of his life, that he might 
ever be enriched from Him whose name is Love — in- 
stead of that blessed love which was to knit him also 
to his kind, in all varied relationships and companion- 
ships, that so it might join all together in one body, 
and compact and supply all, as it thus made increase 
with the very increase of God — instead of this, the 
powers that were given for it, have stooped to the 
creature in place of the Creator, and so sunk into in- 
ordinate and vile affections, until the sacred name of 
Love has been often utterly lost in that of Lust. A 
very den .of wild beasts, or at best, a city of the 
giants, is then, that heart of man which God created 
to love Him, and to love its fellow. 

Yes, Love — Communion — Fellowship — this is 
the choice possession in all our Father's land. The 
gifts of intellect may be even glorious, and yet have 

is* 



298 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

no glory, by reason of one that excelleth. Love is 
set higher than knowledge, not only for her own sake, 
but because she has a wisdom all her own, which 
grows not in the slow way of gathering from without, 
but glows out from within, a light and a law unto it- 
self! Love does not become rich ; she is born an heir- 
ess. What privilege like that of being a " friend of 
God ! " Such sublimating power lies in this blessed 
fellowship, that it is but a little step from it to glory. 
So Enoch walking with God, " was not, for God took 
him." So the face of Moses shines, and Stephen's 
becomes like that of an angel. The very life of God 
being most fully expressed in Love, it becomes the life 
of our life, feeding it, warming it, and cherishing it. It 
is the very Sun that shineth in its strength. What 
wonders might it not work on this poor, starving 
earth, so turned as it is from its true pole, that its 
short days can only shiver in a few slanting rays. 
Whenever man will let his God bring back this per- 
verted love, to be true to Him, his whole nature will 
leap into luxuriance. Germs that lie utterly dor- 
mant, will then be developed. The world awaits this 
healing, quickening miracle of Love ; and blessed in- 
deed, are they who, meanwhile, follow the Lord so 
fully that He can give them this choice inheritance. 

Yet we are taught also by this record that it is : ~* - 
deed, 

" The most difficult of tasks to keep 
Heights which the soul is competent to gain." 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 299 

Joshua had already taken Hebron ; but now it needed 
to be retaken by Caleb, and yet again by David. " The 
expulsive power of a new affection" is needed not only 
to drive out, but to keep out all that is unhallowed. 
Here, then, first of all in this Citadel of Love and 
holy fellowship with the Father and with the Son, 
our King sets up His throne.* Here we make our 
covenant with Him, and He with us, and then when 
our love has been perfected, He will reign yet more 
royally in " that great city, the holy Jerusalem, de- 
scending out of heaven from God, having the glory 
of God." 

In the portion of Caleb, there was one stronghold 
reserved by him for the prowess of another arm, 
that should at the same time secure a greater prize : 
" And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, 
and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daugh- 
ter to wife." The little episode that follows is again 
repeated in the Book of Judges, as though its lovely 
lesson might possibly be overlooked.f The daugh- 
ter knew her father's bounty, and so she moved her 
husband to ask of him a field ; and along with this 
they needed springs of water : — for this she herself 
will ask him. Drawing nigh in her journey to her 
father, she alights in token of reverence and entreaty. 
But before her lips can shape a word, the father's 
heart is open : — " What wilt thou, my daughter ?" 

* Cf. 1 Chron. xi. 1-7, and xxix. 27. 

t Cf. Josh. xv. 16-19, anc l J Uf l£ es L 12-15. 



300 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



" Give me a blessing ; for thou hast given me a south 
land ; give me also springs of water." " And he gave 
her the upper springs and the nether springs :" — 
above all she had asked or thought ; springs in the 
valley, and springs also upon the hills, so that she 
should lack no good thing. The lot was not so 
rigid as to exclude either rewards for the faithful, 
or free gifts for the filial, trusting heart. The patient 
endurance of a dry land might have been a good 
thing ; but how much better the faith that drew her 
on ! What dearth, what weary wanderings might 
have been her portion, had she never said at her 
father's feet, " GIVE ME A BLESSING I" 

Whatever portion God has assigned to us, or what- 
ever He has permitted our hand to win, what is any- 
thing or all, unless He add the blessing of these 
springs of water, of which He has told us, " The 
water that I shall give shall be within, a well of wa- 
ter springing up unto everlasting life.** No simpler, 
stronger symbol of the Spirit, could be found than 
this. A Spring — a Well-spring — never dry — never 
turbid — from its clear depths, fed through the secret 
veins of earth, it gushes ever into life ; it goeth not 
downward, but it springeth up. Resisting its own 
common law, it resists also the influences that meet 
it : in the fiery heat of summer it is the cool and 
satisfying spring ; and the fierce frosts of winter can 
not bind it, for it is warm with central heat. The 
soul that has found all its springs in God, never knows 



CHOICE POSSESSIOXS. 



301 



its supplies to fail or vary. And we need both upper 
and nether springs : we need the Spirit of God in the 
highest regions of life ; and down to its lowest level, 
the need is still the same. The thought of few of 
God's children is broad enough to embrace both in 
their asking. With some the thought is this — In the 
things of God we must have the Spirit of God ; but 
it would derogate from His dignity to refer the com- 
monplaces of life to Him. Such familiarity were 
fatal — our own judgment, our natural powers, are 
our resources here. Again, others have no true con- 
ception of spiritual things ; never having been among 
these hills, they only aspire to live out life in the low 
valley of common duties, and to have these enriched 
by blessing from the Lord. 

Meanwhile, our Father's thought is to harmonize 
these two regions of life, and no Christian can have 
real completeness of character without it. Who has 
not known good people — say holy men and women — • 
saints, indeed, in all spiritual things, with both knowl- 
edge and power — whom to meet was a delight ; — but 
with whom to live were utter discord ; — they had 
no nether springs : spiritual, but not practical, they 
seemed better fitted for heaven than earth. Such a 
life is not patterned after that of Christ. The Lord 
Jesus never overlooked the little things : one mo- 
ment with His holy hands lifting the cold, folded 
palms of Jairus' little daughter, and saying from the 
heights of spiritual power, " Damsel, arise!" — the 



302 



THE FULNESS CF BLESSING. 



next moment, He commands the astonished and for- 
getful mother to give her something to eat ! The 
faith that is fully poised forgets no earthly duty. 
Abraham, when he entertains angels, can run to the 
herd as the thoughtful host, to make ready their 
table ; nor do even angels upon their side neglect the 
courtesy of partaking of his feast. What might not 
even the petty things of life — as we dare to call them 
— become, if thus purified and elevated by the per- 
meating Spirit ! How many a wife and mother finds 
that her lot has fallen in a valley, and that her field 
of service in itself is almost utterly arid. It is not a 
change of lot she needs — it is the fountain of living 
water. Coming to her Father in heaven not with 
murmuring, but thanksgiving, how graciously He 
listens to her plea, " Give me a blessing." It is 
there already — close beside her, but unseen by her 
weeping eyes, until God shows her the well. Then 
she thirsts no more ; and He teaches her how to 
guide the gracious gift, till everywhere her valley 
home is green and glad. 

We find next in order a request from the children 
of Joseph. Already Manasseh held the rich portion 
of all Bashan, and half of Gilead,* while the five 
daughters of Zelophehad had been allowed to count 
as so many heirs along with the five brethren of their 
father in receiving ten portions in Canaan. Ephraim 
also had one of the richest portions in all the land. 

* Josh. xiii. 29-31. 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 303 

But covetous of still more, they brought their cause 
to Joshua, resting their claim not on any word of the 
Lord, but upon their own conceit : — " Why hast thou 
given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, see- 
ing I am a great people, forasmuch as the Lord hath 
blessed me hitherto?" The answer of Joshua, him- 
self an Ephraimite, was both just and spirited. 
He challenges them to prove their greatness by cut- 
ting down the wood country, and driving out the 
giants. They object that they are not able to do this, 
since the Canaanites have iron chariots. But Joshua, 
even in virtually granting their request, abides by his 
first decision — " Thou art a great people, and hast 
great power ; thou shalt not have one lot only ; but 
the mountains shall be thine ; for it is a wood and thou 
shalt cut it down : and the outgoings of it shall be 
thine ; for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though 
they have iron chariots, and though they be strong."* 
The rebuke belongs to all who desire God's immedi- 
ate giving, to take the place of their own courage and 
energy; who would have Him even make up the de- 
ficit of their own timidity and indolence. There are 
many who aspire to be gifted by the Lord, who are 
slow to see how largely He gives through their own 
diligent use of what He has already given — the full 
cultivation and occupancy of their own lot. What an 
enlarging of all our lots would there be, if instead of 
vainly envying the gifts denied us, we gave all dili- 

* Josh. xvii. 14-18. 



{04 



THE FULXE> .'.W. 



gence in clearing the wilderness, in breaking up the 
fallow ground, and above all, in expelling every enemy. 
The clamor o( conceit is ever — " Give me opportunity, 
and I will be great :" the answer for all such is, 
" Show yourselves great by first filling the sphere in 
which you already are." 

After the allotment of the Land as far as the fami- 
lies of Judah and Joseph, the work was for a time 
suspended. No outward cause existed for this. 
Joshua said unto the children of Israel, that is, the 
seVen remaining tribes which had not yet received 
their inheritance — M How long are ye slack to go to 
possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers 
hath given you ?" It seems almost incredible that 
after all this training, and preparation, and warfare, 
when there remained but one more simple step to the 
realization of God's great promise — even then they 
should come short of it. Jordan — Gilgal — Jericho — 
they had failed at none of these : yet now a spirit of 
sloth possesses them at the last critical moment. 
It is found needful to rouse them by a new expedient 

Three men from each tribe were appointed to go 
through the land and describe it. Walking first 
through the entire country, they then ''described it 
by cities into seven parts, in a book." This explora- 
tion not only served them essentially in the casting of 
lots, but was of far more importance in another way. 
When they had seen the land with their own eyes, 
and the people had heard from them this minute 



CHOICE POSSESSIOXS. 



305 



report, they were aroused to new eagerness to en- 
joy it. 

Such slackness as theirs is found still in the Church 
of Christ, and as then, in by far the greater majority. 
Some indeed, like Judah and Joseph, press on at 
once to their possessions; but others linger until 
some one arises to stir them up. Inertia of spirit is 
one of the last besetments of the believer — the more 
to be feared, that it comes at a time when he needs 
to be especially alert. If the first step of our Chris- 
tian course be decisive, so also is the last : " For 
we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the begin- 
ning of our confidence steadfast unto the end."* The 
foot must not grow weary, till it has reached in its 
experience, the utmost length, and utmost breadth, 
of all the promises of God. 

But to Christians collectively, how emphatically 
may it be still said, " There remaineth yet much land 
to be possessed." The Church has still to measure 
out with the lines of her knowledge even, as far as 
the revelation of the Gospel reaches. There are vast 
regions of glorious Truth that are little known to the 
many. How few venture into the wilderness of 
Prophecy, to pitch their tents ! And who is there to 
go up that highest summit among all their holy moun- 
tains, and see what things they are which our Blessed 
Lord has " shewn unto His servants," and " which 
must shortly come to pass?"f What heart is found so 
* Heb. iii. 14. t Rev. i. 1. 



306 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

full of holy courage, as to go forth alone, and year 
after year, steer steadily up to the great fountain- 
heads of those mighty rivers, that have flowed so long 
from unknown sources ? Alas, for Christianity, when 
she gave up that good old way of " faring forth " to 
seek the Truth— to go into her cloister, and there 
with infinite pains indeed, make out her maps from 

the old models of men whom she called her masters 

till at last she could settle down in a comfortable 
congratulation over their completeness ! What room 
has she, indeed, in her beautifully executed systems 
of Theology, for the strange stories of these travellers 
and sight-seers ! 

It were wise for us to heed such a voice as that 
which charged the Pilgrim Fathers of our Land in 
their exile for conscience sake — " I am verily per- 
suaded, I am very confident, that the Lord hath more 
truth yet to break forth out of His holy Word." * 
Lengthen therefore thy cords, O Church of Christ. 

* Neal gives this parting address of Pastor Robinson as 
follows : — 

" Brethern :— We are now quickly to part from one another, 
and whether I may ever live to see your faces on earth any more, 
the God of heaven only knows ; but whether the Lord has ap- 
pointed that or no, I charge you before God and His blessed 
angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

" If God reveal anything to you, by any other instrument of His, 
be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth 
by my ministry ; for I am verily persuaded, the Lord has more 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 



307 



Strengthen all thy stakes. " Enlarge the place of thy 
tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy 
habitation." Arise ! walk through the land, ye 
chosen men of God — Look from its Mountain-tops — 
Sail out upon its Seas — Write it in many a book — 
Describe it in the ears of all the people — Stir them 
from this slackness — Let them know what are the 
riches of the glory of this inheritance in Christ Jesus ! 
The last of all to receive his possession in the Land 
of Promise, was Joshua. As it was given by special 



truth yet to break forth out of His holy Word. For my part I can- 
not sufficiently bewail the condition of the Reformed Churches, 
who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no 
further than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans 
cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw ; whatever part 
of His will our God has revealed to Calvin, they will rather die 
than embrace it ; and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they 
were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. 

" This is a misery much to be lamented, for though they were 
burning and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not 
into the whole counsel of God ; but were they now living, would 
be as willing to embrace further light as that which they first 
received. I beseech you remember it is an article of your 
Church-Covenant, that you be ready to receive whatever truth 
shall be made known to you from the written Word of God. 
Remember that, and every other article of your Sacred Covenant. 
But I must here withal exhort you to take heed what you receive 
as truth — examine it, consider it ; and compare it with other Scrip- 
tures of truth, before you receive it, for it is not possible the 
Christian world should come so lately out of such thick anti-Chris- 
tian darkness, and that perfection of knowledge should break 
forth at once." — NeaVs History of the Puritans, Vol. I., pp. 476, 
477. 



308 T HE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

word of God, so had it also to be given by all the 
people, as his inheritance among them — Timnath- 
serah — the portion of the Sun. Even so, when the 
Lord Jesus has secured to all His people the posses- 
sions which He has won for them, then will His tab- 
ernacle also be with men, and He will dwell among 
them. 

There were still, however, two other classes to be 
provided for, without their receiving what might be 
called an inheritance. These classes were the two 
extremes of Society — the Manslayer and the Levite. 
Even for the poor fugitive fleeing from the Avenger 
of blood, there were to be cities where he might not 
only find a refuge, but a home ; — a refuge in all cases 
until his cause was judged, and it was shown whether 
he was an unwilling slayer, or a murderer ; and then 
a home, if delivered from judgment, till the death of 
the High Priest should restore him to his native city. 
Thus in dividing the land, the Lord did not forget 
the needs of the most distressed. The six cities 
selected were so situated, that some one of them was 
always within reach. So has the Saviour placed Him- 
self within the reach of all, even of such as are in ut- 
most peril of Vengeance. He is the Refuge, and the 
Home, and the final Restorer. It is surely most sig- 
nificant that instead of mean and unimportant cities 
being chosen, these six were all among the forty- 
eight Levitical cities. It showed not only the stand- 
ing of all on common ground, but secuted to the 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 



309 



distressed the utmost sympathy and succor; for it is 
always found that the purest in heart, who dwell 
nighest to God, are the most compassionate and lov- 
ing to them who are out of the way. 

The Levites held their cities upon a different tenure 
from the other tribes. " Unto the tribe of Levi 
Moses gave not any inheritance, for the Lord God of 
Israel was their inheritance, as He said unto them." ' x * 
If they were denied in some sort an earthly portion, 
it was that they might claim more clearly the heavenly 
home. This distribution of the Levites among all 
the tribes of Israel is a most striking instance of the 
reversal of a curse ; and again, taken in connection 
with a like scattering of Simeon, we see the same 
outward lot, so altered by inner conditions, as to pre- 
sent the very extremes of favor and displeasure. 
Both of them were to be divided in Jacob and scat- 
tered in Israel.f Simeon, therefore, instead of receiv- 
ing a clearly-bounded territory, had only those por- 
tions of Judah which proved too much for that tribe. 
The cities assigned them were in various and remote 
groups, so as naturally to place them at a disadvan- 
tage, and in dependence upon others. Simeon is very 
significantly omitted from the last blessing upon the 
tribes of Israel ; while in the case of Levi, we find a 
striking series of prophecies, extending from Genesis 
to Malachi, and leading from the depths up to the 
heights. Coupled with his brother Simeon, we hear 

* Josh. xiii. 33. t Gen. xlix. 5-7. 



310 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

the dying Israel recoil from their anger and self-will — 
" O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto 
their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united."* 
What a change had come upon the children of Levi, 
when Moses gave his blessing — " They shall teach 
Jacob Thy judgments, and Israel Thy law." f And, 
finally, to what honor had they been chosen, when we 
read in Malachi : " My covenant was with him of life 
and peace ; and I gave them to him for the fear 
wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before My 
name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and in- 
iquity was not found in his lips : he walked with Me 
in peace and equity, and did turn many away from 
iniquity." J: So a leaden curse, seeming like a mill- 
stone about their necks, is transmuted by the alchemy 
of grace into a sort of golden crown ; and while the 
first is found to be the last, the last is first. Reuben, 
the first-born, has sheep-folds ; and Levi, the out- 
cast, has the service of the Most High God. 

However bitter and dark the past record of any 
life, how dare any one despair in the face of such a 
fact as this? And what a stimulus is given here, as 
everywhere in God's Word, to choose the better part 
— to brave the self-denial and abnegations of service, 
for the sake of such a covenant of life and peace, and 
such abundant blessedness to others. 

How many ministers of Christ — how many mis- 
sionaries in their far greater sacrifices — must have had 
* Gen. xlix. 6. t Deut. xxxiii. 10. \ Mai. ii. 5, 6. 



CHOICE POSSESSIONS. 



3" 



their souls sustained by the assurance, " The Lord God 
is my inheritance." For us who so follow Christ, 
there is a standard of both wealth and honor, that the 
world wots not of. The True Riches outweigh the 
treasures of all earth ; and looking to Him who said, 
" I am among you as He that serveth," we rejoice to 
make ourselves least of all, and servants of all, and 
thus in all lowliness and love — 

" To fill the measure up of gentle deeds — 
Even as we have learned that in these, 
That in the holy Christian charities, 
And the suppliance of the lowliest needs 
Of the most lowly, our true greatness is ! " 

The account of the distribution of the Land closes 
with a strong statement, that at first glance would 
seem unsupported by facts. But we have to bear in 
mind that the great reality of the Lord's giving was 
none the less true, for a failure here and there to re- 
ceive, or to keep the good thing that had been given. 
It is the record of what the Lord had done, and there- 
fore may not be sullied by the failures of man : " The 
LORD GAVE unto Israel ALL THE LAND which He 
sware to give unto their fathers ; and they possessed 
it and dwelt therein. And THE LORD GAVE THEM 
REST round about, according to all that He sware 
unto their fathers : and there stood not a man of all 
their enemies before them ; THE LORD DELIVERED 
all their enemies into their hand. THERE FAILED 



312 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 



NOT AUGHT of any good thing which the Lord had 
spoken unto the house of Israel ; ALL CAME TO 
PASS." * 

It was the triumph of that same Lord, who, " when 
He ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and 
gave gifts unto men." It is this same Lord, that will, 
without fail, give us the riches of the glory of His in- 
heritance, but who, therefore, gives to every one of us 
all, some special gift of His Spirit. The very smallest 
of them all may not be hidden with impunity. It is 
even because the gifts so differ, that we are to be so 
diligent in using them. 

Fellow - Christian, " stir up the gift of God that is in 
thee ! " It is thy wealth ; it is thy portion among 
thy brethren ; be not slack to possess thy land. 
Church of Christ, claim all thy gifts ! Thou mayest 
not say of one of them, as given to any member in 
all thy Body — "I have no need of thee." — But 
" COVET EARNESTLY THE BEST GIFTS." 
* Josh. xxi. 43-4.5* 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. 

Ur PAKE GOOD HEED, THEREFORE, UNTO YOUR- 
A SELVES, THAT YE LOVE THE LORD YOUR 

God." — {Josh, xxiii. u). " As for me and my 

HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD." — (Josh. xxiv. 
15). 

. The testimony of Triumph was not permitted to be 
the close of the Book of Joshua. The aged Leader of 
God's people, looking to their future as well as to 
their past, had a solemn message to leave with them 
before he was gathered to his fathers. Once and 
again he must speak those words of cheer, and words 
of warning, that pressed upon his spirit. His deep 
interest in the nation, and his own sense of responsi- 
bility, received an unmistakable emphasis in the second 
gathering at Shechem, where the Elders and Judges 
" stood before God," while Joshua, with all intensity" 
of earnestness, gave his parting charge, 

There was no new thing to say ; but simple as the 
exhortation was, momentous were the interests that 
hung upon their heeding. He reminded them of 
14 (313) 



314 the fulAtess of blessing. 

what the Lord had done in the past — of what He 
was ready to do in the future. It was the Lord who 
would still fight for them, and continue to drive out 
their enemies ; therefore one man of them should 
chase a thousand. But as He had brought all good 
things upon them, so would He, if they turned away 
from Him, bring upon them all evil things. St. Paul 
repeated the same charge in substance, when he wrote 
to the Church in Rome : " Behold therefore the 
goodness and severity of God — on them which fell, 
severity ; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue 
in His goodness ; otherwise thou also shalt be cut 
off." * By reason of such hopes, and by reason of 
such fears, they were to be very courageous to keep 
and do all that had been commanded. From idols 
and false gods, and from all who served them, they 
were to turn utterly away. And that all this might 
be accomplished, there was given one golden watch- 
word — " Take good heed therefore unto 

YOURSELVES, THAT YE LOVE THE LORD YOUR 
GOD." f As God has no other power whereby to 
draw us unto Himself than His " bands of love," so 
has He no other power by which to hold us steadfast 
unto the end. It is the only clew that has been 
given us, to lead us safely out from the labyrinth of 
life, and we may not let it slip ; for losing this, we 
wander in " the mist of darkness forever." With 
weightiest reason, therefore, did the dying Leader 
* Rom. xi. 22. t Josh, xxiii. II. 



THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. 3^ 

of his people say, " Take good heed that ye LOVE the 
Lord your God." 

The first pass-word given to the youthful soldier 
is " TRUST ;" but as the hours move on, he finds 
that he must learn still another to secure his safety — 
" Watch." The Captain of our salvation who gave 
the first so often, gave this also at the last. Sitting 
on the Mount of Olives, with none but Peter and 
James and John beside Him, He could not say it to 
them only ; but His holy care took us all into His 
thought that hour : — " What I say unto you, I say 
unto all, Watch."* How solemnly He spoke it 
in the Garden ! Temptations were gathering thick 
around them ; therefore they were to watch with an 
eye glancing at the enemy, even while resting ever- 
more upon God : — " Watch and pray, that ye enter 
not into temptation. "f And there was yet another 
need to watch. The Master was coming in the Morn- 
ing ; but neither man nor angel knew when that 
morning would dawn : and meantime the thief would 
be seeking to enter ; — " Watch, therefore, for ye 
know not what hour your Lord doth come."}: 

So, also, St. Paul at Miletus, looking for the last 
time on that dear flock from Ephesus, foresees the 
grievous wolves, and straightway charges them, 
" Therefore, Watch !" Already by the space of 
three years, he had not ceased to warn every one 
night and day with tears. But still the peril will 

* Mark xiii. 37. t Matt. xxvi. 41. | Matt. xxiv. 42. 



316 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

come. Even from among those very men, now- 
weeping sore upon his neck, will some arise to speak 
perverse things ; and unless they watch, others still 
will be drawn away — " Take heed, therefore, unto 
yourselves, and to all the flock."* 

St. Peter, also, counted it not enough to tell in his 
last Epistle, of exceeding great and precious prom- 
ises ; but looking on to the days of " false teachers " 
and " destructive heresies," he gives thus his closing 
charge : " Beloved, BEWARE lest ye also being led 
away with the error of the wicked, fall from your 
own steadfastness." f 

At the close of that most wonderful Epistle, which 
above all others, tells us of Life, and Light, and Love, 
with what startling abruptness come the closing words 
— as though the Apostle had said already his last 
tender thoughts, and then turned again to utter this 
one brief warning — "Little children, BEWARE OF 
Idols.":): 

Finally, when the Lord Jesus, walking in the midst 
of the seven candlesticks, sends forth His messages 
to the Churches, it is to sound successive notes of 
warning, even while holding out the highest prom- 
ises. The solemn charge to Sardis is more or less 
the common burden of all — "Be WATCHFUL, and 
strengthen the things which remain, that are ready 
to die." § 



* Acts xx. 17-38. \ 2 Pet. Hi. 17. 

X 1 John v. 21. § Rev. iii. 2. 



THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. 3^ 

If one would understand the necessity for such 
warnings from age to age, let him but turn to the 
records of that Church which Christ purchased with 
His own blood. " So safe," is our thought at first, 
as we look upon our Surety. So safe with such a 
Saviour — so safe through the might of the indwelling 
Spirit. But these records, what say they ? There is 
no study that is so passing sorrowful as Church His- 
tory, even with all that also makes it joyful. Behold 
how quickly the wolves break in, and the slaughter 
and scattering of the sheep ! Behold the heavy 
mists of speculative thought rising along the stag- 
nant shores of old Philosophy, and spreading far 
and wide, till the pure air is poisoned in the homes 
of thousands ! Behold the floods of worldliness let 
loose, and sweeping along the multitude ! Behold, 
again, the gross darkness that covers the people, till 
they weary themselves as in the very fires, to purchase 
peace and pardon ! 

And even when the Lord came forth so marvel- 
lously to restore the lost Truth, and sent a new Morn- 
ing, and a glad Spring-time to the world — behold how 
speedily once more, there came the blighting winds 
of deadly doctrine, or more destructive still, the chill 
frosts of utter apathy ! And looking also at the time 
not yet handed over to History, behold the swift and 
scathing fires that incendiary hands have kindled — 
setting any of their wild lights to do the work, and 
snatching often as they dare the sacred torch of 



3 i 3 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

Science, to hurry on the conflagration ! Yet of the 
lands that have been thus ravaged, we must remem- 
ber, that the Lord may still see and count His seven 
thousand, while even a prophet thinks himself alone. 

In view of all the past, and the scourges of the 
present in many a region, can we fondly hope that 
our own day, or our own land, is to prove at last the 
happy exception ? Never, indeed, was there witnessed 
such activity in spreading the Gospel — such affluence 
even of Christian appliances. But may not the Church 
be nearing in her career the case of that last one 
among the typical Seven, when she seemed in her 
own eyes to have need of nothing? — and yet all 
that the faithful and true Witness could say was 
this, " Because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee 
out of my mouth."* No external activity can ever 
take the place of personal affection and inward com- 
munion with the Lord. 

Nor is this the only peril of our day. We recog- 
nize with great joy, the fact of a wide-spread earnest- 
ness to come up to a higher standard of Christian 
life. Sometimes it would seem that we are even on 
the eve of unprecedented blessings. There is good 
promise of a more vital hold on Truth, as well as of 
its clearer vision. There are signs of more ardent 
love, and more joyful sacrifice in service. Above all, 
brotherly love is making the boundary lines of a 
greatly divided Church, if not yet indistinct, yet far 

* Rev. iii. 16. 



THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. ^q 

more unobtrusive. No longer high walls and moats, 
but blooming hedgerows mark the fields upon the 
one vast estate. Indeed, one can so look at the 
present blessings of the Christian community, as to 
make the simplest suggestion of fear appear a discord 
and disloyalty. 

There have been times not a few — and in whose 
memory is there not such a one — when God's 
Spirit has so brooded over great assemblies, as to 
knit them into wondrous unity, and to lift them up 
as on wings of eagles. Did it not seem on some such 
happy day as though all that was low, and petty, and 
self-willed, had gone forever ! The River swelled with 
the upheaving tide from God's great outer Sea, till all 
its wonted obstacles, its sand-bars and its snags, were 
too far down to touch, and free and fearless each little 
sail went on its way. The full flood of Heavenly 
Love had lifted them all up into safety. But have 
we no need to watch the ebbing ? How soon may 
the mindful Spirit need to revive these memories — 
" Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and 
heard ; and hold fast, and repent.""* 

Do w r e not already see the signs that should be 
heeded ? Has not the Philistine stalked into our 
conquered Canaan ? It is such an easy step from 
leading the people like a flock, to lording it over 
God's heritage ; so natural after judging for oneself, 
to judge the consciences of others also ; so easy to for- 

* Rev. iii. 3. 



320 



THE FULNESS OF BLESSIXG. 



get, that the angelic tongue may turn to a poor tink- 
ling cymbal, and all knowledge and all faith become 
nothing, the moment charity collapses. Arrogance, 
bickerings, cliques, dogmatism, jealousies — one dead 
fly among them all, will spoil the best " ointment 
of the apothecary" — What have they who speak 
of holiness, to do with unclean things like these ! 

Nor must it be overlooked that the very qualities 
which fit men to be leaders, expose them to the dan- 
ger of such assumption, grounded upon strength of 
will. And precisely here are some of the most diffi- 
cult of conquests called for : the development of 
active energies is an easy task ; but to be gentle as 
Christ was gentle — " in meekness to instruct those 
that oppose themselves " — to make oneself of no rep- 
utation — this is the difficult task ; for this sets aside 
the high spirit of man, that the Spirit of Jesus may 
rule in all things. 

All such as have found in faith the victory that 
overcometh the world, still need to listen to one of 
the most striking features in this last charge of 
Joshua ; — the direction given to still drive out their 
enemies.* Such a charge at first seems to contradict 
the claim of a complete conquest. But it is found 
thoroughly true in experience. Whoever dreams that 
because his Garden has been well-weeded, he may 
now give over that care ? How often it happens that 
the round is not complete, before it needs some- 

* Josh, xxiii. 5. 



THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. 321 

where to be renewed. No weed may be suffered to 
sow its seed in that well-enclosed spot, but the germs 
are in the very soil, and they float on all the winds. 
One may gain upon them, some of them may wholly 
disappear, and the others be known only to one vigi- 
lant eye and unsparing hand — but wherever man is 
put into his garden " to dress it and to keep it," he 
will have to continue this conquest. And what need 
to watch also the too rampant growth — to train that 
which is wild and irregular, to prune the choice vine 
that it may bear much fruit — to watch the insidious 
and fast-spreading blight — the sudden attacks of in- 
sect enemies — the withering heat and the wanton 
winds ! Never may one dream of success through 
immunity from these : that is the reward of never- 
tiring watchfulness. 

But it may be suggested, such watchfulness is pain- 
ful. It involves anxiety, care, responsibility, which 
we are taught to cast upon the Lord. Why not, since 
we are so apt to become unwatchful, simply hand it 
all entirely over to the Lord ? Because we have no- 
where any warrant so to abuse that trust — because 
we are never to abandon that duty which He has 
plainly laid upon us. We may and must abandon all 
anxiety, all distrust — but watchfulness, never ! The 
watchword that the Lord Jesus gave us was not 
"Abandon yourselves," but " Watch /" 

This combination of both trusting and watching is 
perfectly simple. The Alpine traveller selects his 



322 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

guide with care, and then places full confidence in 
him. But does he expect his guide to absolutely 
carry him? — or does he forthwith become reckless? 
Does he rush to the edge of the precipice, or whither 
he will ? Does he not understand rather that his own 
prudence is presupposed, and that he must, under the 
directions of his guide, use his foresight, skill, and 
strength, to their full limit ? And yet his confidence 
is solely in his guide ; and because he watches him, 
and follows him, and obeys him in all things, he can 
also trust him. 

We are told that in the last days, perilous times 
shall come, and that a multitude of evils will then 
be let loose. How much more is yet to come, none 
of us can tell ; but certainly it seems the character- 
istic of our own time that all the various enemies that 
have ever attacked the Church, are now combined 
against it ; so that while we watch on one side the 
openly advancing foe, the secret snare is set for us 
upon the other. Never, surely, was there such a 
necessity to u watch in all tilings." Every new treas- 
ure entrusted to our keeping, must needs draw down 
the thief upon us. All our priceless possessions as 
the Church of Christ, expose us in precise proportion 
to their development, to the rage of him " that dash- 
eth in pieces." Therefore are we charged — "Keep 
the munition ! Watch the way ! Fortify thy power 
mightily."* Not to the few, not to the most, but 
* Nahum ii. I. 



THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. 323 

to all His soldiers — every one of them in a post of 
danger — does the Lord Jesus now speak from heaven, 
" What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch !" 

Watch, then, even along the very line of progress 
and of seeming safety, lest ye take one step beyond the 
safe footing ; lest you carelessly cross that light line 
which is still the very real boundary between good 
and evil. 

Watch, lest while you break free from the tram- 
mels of mere Tradition, and claim that freedom of 
thought which is your rightful heritage, in which 
every man is to be " fully persuaded in his own 
mind " — watch, lest there come an overweening sense 
of your own power, and scope of thought — lest you 
fancy in some vain moment, that by searching you 
can find out God. Watch, lest, like that anointed 
cherub, set by God, of old, upon His holy mountain, 
thy heart also be lifted up, and thy beauty be cor- 
rupted by reason of thy brightness. Watch, lest thou 
" set thy heart as the heart of God ! " * 

And watch also, ye whom the very Spirit of God is 
leading on, illuminating your vision — who see deeper 
than all forms and symbols, and yet behold them as 
mediating between the natural and the spiritual ; 
who have learned what channels have been consti- 
tuted, through which the all-powerful Word can give 
and your lowly faith receive— Watch, lest that which 
is now real, become ideal only; lest Imagination 
* See Ezek. xxviii. 1-19. 



324 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

usurp the place of the Invisible power of God, and 
Sense encroach upon the realm of Spirit. Watch, 
lest your high-way of spirituality bend little by little 
toward that which is beneath ; remember that even 
along such a treacherous track as this, has many an 
unthinking traveller missed his mark — Therefore, 
Watch ! 

And you who, listening to the voice of the Holy 
Spirit, find Him teaching as man never taught, beware 
lest in some moment when your ear is turned the 
way of your own heart's lust — a stranger's voice 
should seem to you the voice that calls you onward ; 
and your fancies and your fears alike combine to 
cheat you, till you wander far from the Good Shep*. 
herd: remember that this very road is white with 
the bones of those who have fallen upon their high 
places : — Therefore, Watch. 

And you who have come to account Charity as great- 
er than all creeds, who see everywhere how they that 
love and fear God are accepted of Him, beware lest 
you lose sight of Truth, in giving place to her poor 
counterpart— and the mere convictions of Conscience, 
with all her variable voices, come to claim a common 
credit. Remember that Eternal Truth is stable as 
the being of God is stable. Remember that her pure, 
white light, as it floweth from His throne forever, is 
more potent by far than any of the brightest of those 
refracted beams that work their little wonders. Re- 
member that Truth is no divisible fund, but " the liv- 



THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. 325 

ing Child " which no sword must slay ; and that every 
fragment which you forfeit, is so much loss in the 
completeness of your own life. 

And you also who have learned that this Truth is, 
indeed, the chief jewel in the crown laid up for you 
— who know that it is not a vain thing for you, but 
your very life, to be embodied in you as it was in 
Him who said — "I AM the Truth'' — watch in your 
turn, that while you thus hold fast to all that is im- 
movable, you give full freedom also to that which 
ever changes, because it ever lives. Smother her not 
in a close-fitting shroud — stiffen her not into a statue 
— and settle not the measure of a growth that is not 
reached. Therefore, watch as Wardens of the Truth, 
that while you guard the majestic forest oak, and 
suffer no rude hand to mar that strong old trunk that 
has stood the same for ages — that still you let it year 
by year put forth its new and living verdure as it 
pleases. 

Watch, ye who have been trained in holy awe of 
the high attributes of your God, and have stood afar 
off as ye worshipped, lest this very reverence of yours 
become a barrier, to stay that tide of love with which 
the Lord is seeking to enrich your being — lest ever, 
ye lie flat upon your faces, forgetful of that blessed 
bosom where every disciple whom Jesus loves, may 
lean as fearless as a child. But watch, ye who have 
learned this lesson, and remember that you are not 
to be less reverent because more loving ; that your 



326 THE FULNESS OF BLESSING. 

freedom is to be no forwardness. Remember, also, 
that it is fitting that the household caress should be 
sheltered under the home shadow. Sons and daugh- 
ters of a King, it is your sweet privilege to forget all 
state in a Father's fondness : but before that world 
that knows Him only as its Sovereign, give Him the 
reverence that is His due. Let not even the dear, 
familiar names by which He would have you call 
Him when alone with Him, fall so freely upon the 
ears of others, that they turn away to misdeem His 
dignity. Therefore, watch ! 

Take heed that when the Lord Jesus bids you " go 
and show what great things God hath done to you," 
that at once you go your way and publish it : but 
take heed also that when He charges you, as He 
sometimes will — " See thou tell no man," that then 
you only keep all these things, and ponder them in 
your hearts. 

Watch, ye whom the Lord has brought into His 
good Land of Promise, and given it to you to pos- 
sess — watch, lest ever you come to rely upon a past 
experience, instead of His continual faithfulness. 

" Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary the 
Devil as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom 
he may devour." Resist him steadfast in the faith. 
And watch him all the more when he transforms 
himself into an angel of light. Watch his open 
attacks and his secret entanglements. Watch that 
you suffer nothing which the Spirit of God condemns 



THE LAST CHARGE OF JOSHUA. 327 

to linger in your land — that even the little failures of 
your consecrated lives, prove not the daily vexing of 
your souls, as of those who walk among thorns and 
briers. 

Watch all along the line of His Commandments — 
walking in love — walking as children of Light — walk- 
ing circumspectly — proving what is acceptable unto 
the Lord. Watch that ye use faithfully every gift that 
He has given you. Take heed especially that you 
" first learn to show piety at home." Watch that as 
you say in the hearing of all Israel, " As for me and 
my house we will serve the Lord," so you be willing 
to write upon the very bridles of your horses,* 
" Holiness unto the Lord." 

Watch all along the line of His Promises, that you 
receive all that He so freely gives. Day by day let 
the healing, animating beams of the Sun of Right- 
eousness shine down upon you. Moment by moment 
take that breath of life which the Lord Jesus breathed 
into you when He said — "Receive ye the Holy Ghost T 

Take good heed that ye still search the Scriptures 
daily. Watch the ripening, one after another, of the 
twelve manner of fruits that are borne upon its blessed 
boughs — that so your souls at each new period of life 
may feed upon never-failing freshness. 

And watch that ye still come continually to Him 
of whom these Scriptures testify, that ye may have 
life. Feed upon Him daily as your true Bread of 

* Zech. xiv. 20, marginal reading. 



328 THE FULNESS OF BLESSIXG. 

Life. Let your holy fellowship with Christ be close 
and continual. " Watch unto prayer " — " praying 
always" — "praying in the Holy Ghost." Take 
heed above all things that ye " continue in His 
love." Watch most of all this Fountain-head of all 
the issues of your life. Take heed that evermore this 
love of Christ constrain you. So in a perfect love 
that casteth out all fear — in trust and not in terror, 
shall ye sing upon your Watch-tower, " The Lord is 
my Keeper" — " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 
whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusteth in 
Thee." 

BLESSED IS HE THAT WATCHETH. 



PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE, 



QUOTED WITH VARIATIONS FROM OUR PRESENT 

VERSION. 

[These variations have been often used in order to 
bring the force of the original to bear as fully as possible 
upon the subject in hand, selecting whatever accessible 
rendering appeared best to effect this, and sometimes using 
a slight paraphrase. The words employed are not at all 
suggested as in all cases to be preferred.] 



Exodus, xxxiii. 14 






. 221 


1 Corinthians, x. 6 . . 


6 


Numbers, xxi. 3 






. 243 


" xi. 26 . . 


198 


Joshua, i. 9 . . 






. 100 


xi. 31, 32 . 


. 


" V. II . 






. 176 


260, 268 


273 


" V. 12 




17 


6, 200 


" xii. 4-1 1 . 


289 


" v. 13, 14 






. 220 


2 Corinthians, v. 7 . . 


235 


Judges, v. 15, 17 






. 293 


v. 14 . . 


7^ 


Proverbs, vi. 22 






• 279 


x.4, 5. • 


250 


Isaiah, xi. 3 . . 






. 283 


Galatians, ii. 20 . . . 


78 


" lxiii. 9 . 






. 221 


Ephesians, vi. 11, 12, 245 


248 


Zechariah, xiv. 20 






327 


Philippians, i. 9 ... 


284 


Matthew, ix. 2, 22 






. 107 


" iii. 12, 14 


263 


xi. 28 






• 30 


iii. 15 . . . 


263 


" xiv. 27 . 






107 


" iii. 21 . . . 


196 


" xxviii. 2c 






138 


Colossians, ii. 12 . . . 


7S 


John, i. 51 . . 






230 


Hebrews, iv. 1 1 ... 


142 


" vi. 55 . . 






193 


" x. 10, 14 . . 


256 


" xvi. 13 . . 






8 


x. 13 ... . 


137 


Acts, xiii. 18 






5i 


2 Peter, ii. 1 


316 


Romans, xv. 29 






15 


" iii. 12 ... . 


139 


1 Corinthians, iv. 4 




258 


1 John, i. 1-3 ... . 


225 


" viii. 


2, : 


5 


278 


" v. 21 . . . - 


316 



(329) 



INDEX. 

Accursed, same word as devoted, 268. 

Achan, Sin of, 269. 

Achor, Valley of, 272. 

Achsah, Request of, 299. 

Aesthetics, Spiritual, 284. 

Ai, Defeat at, 266. 

Aitken, Rev. R., Reference to, 244. 

Alford, Dean, quoted, 2, 188, 193, 194, 248 

Allegorical Teaching, 5. 

Amalek, 241. 

Angel of the Face, 221. 

Apostles, Authority of, 152 ; Twelve ditto, Symbolism of, 153. 

Apprehended and apprehending, 92. 

Arabia, Associations of, 21. 

Argyle's, Duke of, Reign of Law referred to, 12. 

Ark, Symbolism of, 126. 

Assurance, Want of, 36. 

Augustine, St., quoted, 30. 

Bahr, reference to his Symbolik, 153. 
Baptism of Christ, Representative, 133. 
Bengel quoted, 190, 191, 192, 197. 
Bernard, Thos. Dehaney, quoted, 6, 152. 
Bickersteth quoted, 297. 
Blameless, not faultless, 261. 
Blood of Christ, 189. 
Brown, Jas. Baldwin, quoted, 15. 

Canaan, War in, typical, 248. 
Calvin quoted, 192. 

(531) 



332 INDEX. 

Canon, Collection of, 9. 

Captain, Seeing the, 220. 

Cherubim, Symbolism of, 129. 

Childlikeness of Spirit, 233. 

Christlieb quoted, 90, 186, 209, 291. 

Chrysostom quoted, 191. 

Church, Calling of the, 135 ; Blessedness of, 196. 

Church History, Records of, 317. 

Circumcision, Typical meaning of, 159. 

Committal of Faith, 114. 

Consecration, 107 ; do., a ready recipiency, 108 ; do., the work 

of Faith, 112, 113. 
Continuity of Life of Christ, 77-79, *95. 
Conybeare and Howson quoted, 5, 51. 
Courage, 100. 
Crawford, Dr., quoted, 25. 
Crosby, Dr., quoted, 16. 

Darwin quoted, 12. 

Death of Christ, 155, 183. 

Deborah, Song of, 293. 

Definiteness, Lack of, in teaching, 94. 

Delays, none on God's side, 1 10. 

Deuteronomy, Teaching of, 75. 

Devil, The existence of, 245 ; Usurpations of, 246. 

Distrust, Sin of, 57. 

Egypt, Symbolic meaning of, 241. 
Ewald quoted, 66. 
Extraordinary, Dangers of the, 210. 
Eye of the Church composite, 11. 

Faber quoted, 248. 

Fables — two illustrative, 40, 59. 

Fairbairn's Typology quoted, 2. 

Faith, Only direct definition of, 235 ; Its career, 265. 

Farrar's Life of Christ referred to, 10 ; quoted, 275. 



INDEX. 333 

Fay, F. R., quoted, 67. 

Feeling, to follow, not to precede Faith, 121. 

Fellowship with God, 297. 

Flesh, The, 241. 

Freedom not to be forwardness, 326. 

Garden, Need of caring for, 320. 

Garments, Babylonish, 269. 

Gibeonites, Snare of, 274. 

Gifts of the Spirit, 288 ; Given in perpetuity, 290 ; Neglect of, 290. 

Goulburn, Dean, quoted, 38. 

Guidance of the Spirit, 276-284. 

Hall, Bishop, quoted, 24. 

Hallel, The, 179. 

Hare, Archdeacon, quoted, 249. 

Hastening, Importance of, 140. 

Hebron, Attractions of, 295. 

Herbert, George, quoted, 86, 112. 

Holiness, in Greek, the same as Sanctification, 256. 

Incarnation, Significance of, 184. 
Inertia of spirit, 305. 
Israel, Future of, 287. 

" Jesus and the Coming Glory " referred to, 134. 

Jericho, The Fortress, 240. 

Jordan, Significance of, 84-87 ; Possessions east of, 292. 

Joseph, Request of the Tribe of, 303. 

Jukes, Andrew, quoted, 3. 

Keble quoted, 233. 

Keil and Delitzsch quoted, 200, 252, 293. 

Kelly, W., quoted, 86. 

Lange's Com. quoted, 100. 

Law a standard, not strength, 70 ; Law of the Spirit of life, 
74 ; Breaking of, 1 28. 



334 INDEX. 

Legality, Struggles of, 67-70. 
Levi, reversal of his curse, 309. 
Liberty in Christ, 213. 
" Little by little," 250. 
Love, Power of, 173, 29S. 



-, C. H. — Notes on Numbers quoted, 35. 



M— 

M a r mill a n, Rev. Hugh, quoted, 5. 

Majorities no true guide, 56. 

Manifestation, Inward, of Christ. 225-232. 

Manna, Symbolism of, 200, 214. 

Manslayer. Provision for, 30S. 

Materialism, where justly charged, 182. 

Meditation, Importance of, 101. 

Mercy-seat. Symbolism o\. 1 28. 

Michaelis quoted. 100. 

Ministers. Responsibilities of, ;a. 

Miracles, Chief objects of, :. 

Misapprehension of God. 95. 

Moll, Dr., quoted. 1 } 

Molyneux. Rev. CapeL referred to, 2SS. 

Money. Love of. 2~c. 

Moses, significance of his death, 66, 67. 

Myers. Frederic, quoted, 9. 

Natii] dcss, Examples of, 211. 
N ^ ante, Vow of the. 216. 
\ ..is History of the Puritans quoted, 306 
der quoted, 136. 

Olshausen quoted. 72. iSS. 1S9. 

over in Egypt. 176 : Feast of. 177-180. 
" Patience of Hope." Author of, quoted. 21S. 

. Declaring our. 
Preaching. Frequent character of 



INDEX. 235 

Presence of Christ perceptible, 225-233. 
Promises, Strength of, 120. 

Red Sea, Significance of, 84. 

Redemption, Twofold Scope of, 20, 24. 

Refuge, Cities of, 308. 

Remembrance, Duty of, 143. 

Rest, Promise of entering into, 28-32. 

Resurrection of Christ, 185. 

Reticence sometimes commanded, 326. 

Reuben and his cattle, 292. 

Revelation, Unexplored regions of, 136, 305. 

Reverence towards God, 136, 325. 

Robinson, Pastor, Farewell Address of, 306. 

Sacramentarianism referred to, 182. 

Sanctification — an impartation, 27 ; by faith, 37 ; system of In- 
stantaneous, referred to, 96, 259 ; False schemes of, 249 ; de- 
fined in Scripture, 256 ; specially treated of in Chap. XII. 

Satan not to be parleyed with, 282. 

Scriptures, Scepticism respecting, 13 ; Continual study of, 327. 

Self-denial, Perversion of, 165. 

Self-examination, Erroneous ways of, 278. 

Selfism, 162, 172. 

Senses, Spiritual training of, 281. 

Separation from the world, 1 70. 

Sin as defined in Scripture, 258. 

Sincerity not sufficient without Truth, 275. 

Smith's Dictionary of the Bible quoted, 180. 

Spies, Sending of, 23 ; Return of, 45. 

Spiritualism referred to, 245. 

Springs, Symbolism of, 300. 

Standing and state unlike, 53. 

Stanley, Dean, quoted, 116. 

Stephen seeing the Lord Jesus, 231. 

Stier, Rudolph, quoted, 103, 156, 189, 191, 198, 199. 

Stones set up at Gilgal, 146. 



336 INDEX. 

Suffering, Call to, 156. 
Supper, The Lord's, 197. 

Temptation, how differing from Sin, 259. 

Temple representing more than Tabernacle, 131. 

Trench, Archbishop, quoted, 311. 

Truth, its Stability, 324. 

Turning points, 93. 

Types, Varied application of, 10 ; Details of, 12. 

Vaughan, C. J., quoted, 31. 

Veil to be taken from our hearts, 17. 

Victory designed to be constant, 254; already won for us by 

Christ, 264 ; Securities for, 34. 
Voice of the Spirit distinguishable, 281. 

Watchfulness, Importance of, 315. 

Westcott's Introduction quoted, 7. — Gospel of the Resurrection 

quoted, 78. 
Whittier quoted, 117. 
Wordsworth quoted, 298. 
Wordsworth, Bishop, quoted, 137. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: June 2005 

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